L and I were recently talking about whether trilemma is a word. It seemed dubious since the dictionary.com only lists the entry from dictionary.com:
–noun
1. a situation, analogous to a dilemma, in which there are three almost equally undesirable alternatives: His trilemma consisted in not knowing whether to acknowledge receipt, deny it, or simply leave.
2. Logic. [...]
Posts under ‘Learning’
Trilemma
Miasma
The JJGo podcast loves to use good words. This time, it’s miasma:
- noun
1. A noxious atmosphere or influence
2. A poisonous atmosphere formerly thought to rise from swamps and putrid matter and cause disease; A thick vaporous atmosphere or emanation
Velocipede
Tall guy and podcaster Jesse Thorn likes to refer to those old-timey bicycles with one giant wheel in the front and one small wheel in the back. Apparently these are called “velocipedes,” although that usage seems to be a subset of the more general term. From dictionary.com:
–noun
1. a vehicle, usually having two or three wheels, [...]
What ever happened to Shirley Temple?
Shirley Temple would make for a great entry in an alive or dead. She was a huge star in the 1930’s as a kid (won an Academy Award at age 6) and then basically retired from show business in 1949. She turned her attention to politics and eventually served as ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. [...]
Long Live Lawn Bowling! Down with Bocce!
Golden Gate Park has lawn bowling greens where bocce playing is specifically prohibited. Did you know that lawn bowling and bocce are different things? I didn’t. But I have since learned that in bocce, the balls are spherical, but in bowling, the balls are asymmetric, having a flat side that can be used to curve [...]
Who’s face appears on the dime?
What’s great about MelDandy is that she knows my limits. She wanted to know who was on the dime, so instead of calling me, she called Odie. His answer was Harry Truman. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know Odie’s limits, because it’s actually FDR on the dime. So we all learned something.
Also, apparently Grover Cleveland was on [...]
Sirrah
Odie started calling me ’sirrah’ on the train the other day. We figured it was the predecessor of ’sir,’ which turned out to be true. But ’sirrah’ holds a different connotation, according to dictionary.com:
–noun Archaic.
a term of address used to inferiors or children to express impatience, contempt, etc.
Origin: 1520–30; extended form of sir; source of [...]
Arachibutyrophobia
As I recently learned from Mental Floss, “arachibutyrophobia” is a word. According to dictionary.com it is:
noun
a fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one’s mouth
Is this really a condition? Even if it is, does it need a specific word to describe it? This is a general problem: most phobias don’t deserve to have [...]
Panegyric
George Washington used the word “panegyric” in a humble reply to a poem dedicated to him by Phillis Wheatley at the outset of the Revolutionary War. From dictionary.com:
noun
1. a lofty oration or writing in praise of a person or thing; eulogy.
2. formal or elaborate praise.
Lost on the roadmap to peace: Simplified spelling
We all know that the english language does not always make sense. It’s not surprising then that there have been attempts to reform spelling rules. Apparently Andrew Carnegie [wikipedia entry], the steel tycoon and philanthropist, was a proponent of these reforms. He wrote a scathing attack on “ough” words in the New York Times in [...]
What’s the most literary state in the Union?
According to the State Poet Laureates list, Indiana is the most literary. Why? Because they have not one, but two state poets. Apparently, Indiana’s state poet was traditionally appointed by the Indiana State Federation of Poetry Clubs, an honor currently held by Carol Ogdon Floyd. However, in 2005 the state created an official position of [...]
Innocuous
Here’s an exchange that recently transpired:
Labmate: Are you rooting for the Rockies in the playoffs?
Our Hero: Yes. They’re the most innocuous team left.
Labmate: Innocuous?
That’s a prompt for some learning action. Here’s the entry from Webster:
adjective
1 : producing no injury
2 : not likely to give offense or to arouse strong feelings or hostility
That #2 definition perfectly [...]