Word of the Week (4)

Word of the Week


delope

Verb
Definition: To fire into the air rather than at your opponent during a duel.
Origins: French "to throw away"
Sample Sentence: Charles had meant to delope, but his aim was so bad that he hit the count anyway.
There is no German equivalent.

I am a geek. This word can only be found on Wikipedia and a dictionary for obscure words, and I am the only person in my family who knows what it means. I learned this when I was discussing duels with my younger brother and I challenged him with the word. He didn't know it, so I called out to my older brother and told him the explain the definition, sure that he would know it. He didn't. Later, I asked my mom if she knew the word, hoping that I was not as much of a geek as it seemed I was. She guessed that it was the opposite of elope. My dad, with no knowledge of her answer, guessed the same thing. (Great minds think alike.) So, I decided to post this marvelous word that can be found in all kinds of swashbuckling novels where the heroes decide to show mercy to their enemies on the internet in the hope that someone else knows it. (Other than the authors who write the aforementioned swashbuckling novels.)
Please tell me that I am not the only word-loving, duel-reading geek in the world!

P.S. Delope shows up on spell-check as being incorrect. (smack myself on the forehead.)

                                     Lieder Madchen

Word of the Week (3)

Word of the Week

Flocculate

Verb
Definition: To form lumps or masses. 2. To form fluffy masses.
Origins:  Latin, flocculus (a tuft of wool) -ate (suffix)
Sample Sentence: The light, wispy clouds flocculated into a thick white blanket.
German equivalent: ausflocken

I found this word in a novel, The Reluctant Heiress by Eva Ibbotson (review coming soon). It was used to describe a home-made yogurt that was "gently flocculating." I had no idea what this word meant (and neither did my older brother, who knows a lot) so we had to look it up and then share it with you!

                                    Lieder Madchen

Word of the Week (2)

Word of the Week

Antidisestablishmentarianism

Noun

Definition: Opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church, especially the Anglican Church in 19th-century England.

Origins:  Latin ante- (against)  dis- (apart, negative) stare (stand)  -ment (suffix forming a noun) -arian (a suffix that forms a noun denoting a member of a group)  Greek -ism (suffix forming an action noun). I know that this origin is not particularly good, but I dissected the word and did my best. (It took quite a bit of googling.)

Sample Sentence: Antidisestablishmentarianism is the longest English word I know, and I am not even going to try to use it in a sentence that takes the meaning of the word into account.

There is no German equivalent of this word.

Antidisestablishmentarianism was often used as a dare when I and my younger siblings were shorter and more susceptible to that sort of thing. We would dare each other to spell it and then be quite proud of ourselves when we succeeded. (We conveniently didn't notice that it is spelled exactly the same way it is pronounced.)

I have never actually used this word for its true meaning and it is the closest I could come up with when trying to think of a nearly-useless word that everyone knows. (I don't believe in useless words, but this one comes close.)

What is the longest word (or the closest to being useless) that you can think of?

                                                   Lieder Madchen

Word of the Week

I love words. In school, vocabulary is one of my favorite subjects and I was always fairly good at spelling. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to invent Word of the Week. I don't know if someone else has something similar, but I wouldn't be surprised. I have challenged myself, and anyone else who wants to give it a try, to find a word that is not used very often in ordinary conversation. Every week, I will post such a word with its definition, origins, a sample sentence and a translation into German. I challenge anyone who chooses to join me to pick their own language of choice, be it Spanish, Sanskrit, or Swahili. :) Sometimes I will also add a little story to go with the word if it is one that is special to me.

Word of the Week #1

Insouciant

Forms: Insouciant, Adjective. Insouciantly, Adverb. Insouciance, Noun.
Definition: Unconcerned, nonchalant, free from cares
Origin: French from in- (not) and souciant (worrying)
German Translation: unbekümmert
Sample Sentence:
The cat is the most insouciant of all creatures, it walks through life as though it hasn't a care in the world.

Insouciant and I have a long history. It has been one of my very favorite words for years, and I have had a very hard time convincing anyone that it is useful. After many arguments with my brothers about it, I finally got my revenge. We were playing the board game Cranium, there were two teams, girls against boys and the boys were just slightly ahead and the game was almost over. When I picked up their card to read their question for them, I almost groaned. It was a Word Worm lexicon with the word "insouciant". For those of you who have never played Cranium, Word Worm is a category and lexicon is a subcategory where you have to choose the correct definition of the word from the four choices given. When I saw that the word was "insouciant", I was sure that they would remember my attempts to prove its usefulness and therefore be able to name the definition easily. I was utterly shocked by their shortness of memory as the three of them started discussing which was the most likely definition. None of them gave the definition "nonchalant" a second glance and when the timerr was nearly out they settled on a different one and got it wrong. I don't remember who won that particular game, except that it was very close, but I do remember the feeling of triumph at having proved the value of the word "insouciant" and also the feeling of annoyance and chagrin at the realization that the boys paid absolutely no attention to my rantings on vocabulary. :)

Please post the link to your own Word of the Day below, or, if you do not have a blog, feel free to leave a comment with the most fun and interesting or strange and absurd word you can think of. I hope you will join me!

                     Good Luck!
                              Lieder Madchen