Word of the Day Thread

[ITS ME!]

chockablock \ CHOK-uh-BLOK \ , adjective;
1.
Extremely full; crowded; jammed.

2.
Nautical. Having the blocks drawn close together, as when the tackle is hauled to the utmost.

adverb: 1.
In a crowded manner: books piled chockablock on the narrow shelf.



Quotes:
This town is chockablock with restaurants that are just clones of the same old themes.
-- Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

lf opossum and skunk and raccoon can hide there, survive there, year after year, decade after decade, almost in the middle of a teeming metropolitan chockablock , think how an enterprising monkey might fare.
-- Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas



Origin:
Chockablock is of uncertain origin. It is likely related to the word chock-full which means "crammed". The word chock refers to a wooden block that holds something in place.

[ITS ME!]

makebate \ MEYK-beyt \ , noun;

1.
A person who causes contention or discord.



Quotes:
The man was a hater of the great Governor and his life-work, the Erie; a makebate , a dawplucker, a malcontent politicaster.
-- Samuel Hopkins Adams, Grandfather Stories

But after all he pays well that pays with gold; and Mike Lambourne was never a makebate , or a spoil-sport, or the like.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Kenilworth



Origin:
Makebate stems from the Middle English word bate which meant "contention".

[ITS ME!]

agemate \ EYJ-meyt \ , noun;
1.
A person of about the same age as another.



Quotes:
She tolerates the family, especially an agemate named Isabelle, although they kid her about getting letters from a mysterious swain every day.
-- Faye Moskowitz, Her face in the Mirror

She had no agemate in that house, no one she could think of as an ally.
-- Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge



Origin:
Agemate entered English in the late 1500s when the word mate meant "guest" in Old English

[ITS ME!]

Bildungsroman \ BIL-doongz-roh-mahn \ , noun;

1.
A type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.



Quotes:
Unlike David Copperfield , The Catcher in the Rye is no Bildungsroman , because the narrator/protagonist doesn't want to grow up.
-- John Sutherland and Stephen Fender, Love, Sex, Death & Words

With its emphasis squarely on the diversity and latitude of lived experiences, Night Travellers unambiguously demonstrates its unease with the rigid providential scenario that pervades this kind of political Bildungsroman.
-- Yunzhong Shu, Buglers on the Home Front



Origin:
Bildungsroman stems from the German word of the same spelling. The word bildung means "formation," and the word roman means "book."

[ITS ME!]

jubilate \ JOO-buh-leyt \ , verb;
1.
To show or feel great joy; rejoice; exult.

2.
To celebrate a jubilee or joyful occasion.



Quotes:
Though this sudden setback of the plague was as welcome as it was unlooked-for, our townsfolk were in no hurry to jubilate.
-- Albert Camus, The Plague

This would enable me to jubilate like a normal person, knowing why.
-- Samuel Beckett, The Unnameable



Origin:
Jubilate derives from the Latin word jūbil- meaning "to shout."

[ITS ME!]

precipitancy \ pri-SIP-i-tuhn-see \ , noun;
1.
Headlong or rash haste.

2.
The quality or state of being precipitant.

3.
Precipitancies, hasty or rash acts.



Quotes:
There is one thing I think it my duty to caution you against: the precipitancy with which young men frequently rush into matrimonial engagements, and by their thoughtlessness draw many a deserving woman into scenes of poverty and distress.
-- Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple

The police authorities have acted in this matter with undue precipitancy.
-- Joseph Smith Fletcher, Green Ink and Other Stories



Origin:
Precipitancy comes from the Latin word praecipitāre meaning "to cast down headlong."

[ITS ME!]

intrapreneur \ in-truh-pruh-NUR \ , noun;
1.
An employee of a large corporation who is given freedom and financial support to create new products, services, systems, etc., and does not have to follow the corporation's usual routines or protocols.



Quotes:
Furthermore, the distinction between entrepreneur and intrapreneur reflects a difference in both attitude of mind, and ability between individuals.
-- Michael Rimmington, Clare Williams and Alison Morrison, Entrepreneurship in the Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Industries

What is in the interest of the individual intrapreneur may not be in the interest of the shareholder of the corporation.
-- Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz, Invisible Wealth



Origin:
Intrapreneur was coined in the 1970s as a variation of the more common word entrepreneur. The prefix intra- means "within."

[ITS ME!]

banausic \ buh-NAW-sik \ , adjective;
1.
Serving utilitarian purposes only; mechanical; practical: architecture that was more banausic than inspired.



Quotes:
Banausic to the point of drudgery? Sometimes. Often tedious? Perhaps.
-- David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

To me, the Venetians whom I have met, seem to be merely inadequate, incondite, banausic , and perfectly complacent about it.
-- Frederick Rolfe, The Armed Hands



Origin:
Banausic comes from the Greek word bánaus meaning "artisan, mere mechanical." It entered English in the 1820s.

[ITS ME!]

matte \ mat \ , adjective;
1.
Having a dull or lusterless surface: matte paint; a matte complexion; a photograph with a matte finish.

noun: 1.
A dull or dead surface, often slightly roughened, as on metals, paint, paper, or glass.

2.
A tool for producing such a surface.



Quotes:
The blue, red, and green of the china pattern were matte , but the white background glowed.
-- James Collins, Beginner's Greek

In seconds the coals went from matte black to shiny wet and then back to matte black, as the stuff soaked in.
-- A.M. Homes, Things You Should Know



Origin:
Matte comes form the Late Latin word mattus meaning "moist, soft, weak."

[ITS ME!]

incondite \ in-KON-dit \ , adjective;
1.
Ill-constructed; unpolished: incondite prose.

2.
Crude; rough; unmannerly.




Quotes:
He is no such honest chronicler as R.N., and would have done better perhaps to have consulted that gentleman, before he sent these incondite reminiscences to press.
-- Charles Lamb, Charles Lamb: Selected Writings

I wish I might digress and tell you more of the pavor nocturnus that would rack me at night hideously after a chance term had struck me in the random readings of my boyhood, such as peine forte et dure (what a Genius of Pain must have invented that!), or the dreadful, mysterious, insidious words "trauma," "traumatic event," and "transom." But my tale is sufficiently incondite already.
-- Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

To me, the Venetians whom I have met, seem to be merely inadequate, incondite , banausic , and perfectly complacent about it.
-- Frederick Rolfe, The Armed Hands



Origin:
Incondite stems from the Latin root condere meaning "to put in, restore." The prefix in- also corresponds to the prefix un- , as in the word indefensible .

[ITS ME!]

cathect \ kuh-THEKT \ , verb;
1.
To invest emotion or feeling in an idea, object, or another person.



Quotes:
Yet such sympathy becomes forceful through mass-cultural stereotypes, visceral and imaginative figures of woman as demon with which readers can easily cathect.
-- David Bruce Suchoff, Critical Theory and the Novel

We cathect something whenever we invest emotional energy in it, whether that something be another person, a rose garden, playing golf, or hating lessons.
-- Morgan Scott Peck, Golf and the Spirit



Origin:
Cathect is a backformation that emerged in the 1930s. It comes from the idea of cathexis from Sigmund Freud's term for emotional investment.

[ITS ME!]

foible \ FOI-buhl \ , noun;
1.
A minor weakness or failing of character; slight flaw or defect: an all-too-human foible.

2.
The weaker part of a sword blade, between the middle and the point (opposed to forte).



Quotes:
Irascibility was his sole foible ; for in fact the obstinacy of which men accused him was anything but his foible , since he justly considered it his forte.
-- Edgar Allan Poe, "X-ing a Paragrab", Poetry and Tales

I fear, on the contrary, if they came under your examination, there is not one in whom you would not discern some foible !
-- Fanny Burney, Camilla



Origin:

Related to the word feeble , foible is derived from the Latin word flēbilis which meant "lamentable."

[ITS ME!]

billet-doux \ BIL-ey-DOO \ , noun; plural billets-doux \bil-ay-DOO(Z)\

1.
A love letter.



Quotes:
The bouquet struck her full in the chest, and a little billet-doux fell out of it into her lap.
-- E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread

Or you receive a billet doux in a careless scrawl you can't read. What sort of billet doux is that, I ask you?
-- William H. Gass, Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife

“A billet-doux means love letter, in French like.” “Then why didn't you just say love letter?” “Because French is the language of love, my boy. Something you should keep in mind, but will soon forget.”
-- William W. Johnstone and J. A. Johnstone, The Brother's O'Brien



Origin:
Billet-doux literally means "sweet note" in French. It entered English in the 1660s.

[ITS ME!]

compeer \ kuhm-PEER \ , noun;
1.

Close friend; comrade.

2.
An equal in rank, ability, accomplishment, etc.; peer; colleague.

verb: 1.
Archaic. To be the equal of; match.



Quotes:
Whoever eats them outlasts heaven and earth, and is the compeer of sun and moon.
-- Cheng'en Wu, Monkey

Aren't you pleased with him, and didn't he arrange things well, eh, my good compeer Lenet?
-- Alexandre Dumas, The Women's War



Origin:
Compeer comes from the Latin word parem which meant "equal." The prefix com- means "with, together or in association."

[wooldog]

inconspicuous

[facebook/fibonicci]

I think inconspicuous is right. :)

[sixty seven]

psychosomatic
ˌsʌɪkə(ʊ)səˈmatɪk/
adjective
adjective: psychosomatic

1.
(of a physical illness or other condition) caused or aggravated by a mental factor such as internal conflict or stress.
"her doctor was convinced that most of Edith's problems were psychosomatic"
synonyms: (all) in the mind, psychological, irrational, stress-related, stress-induced, subjective, subconscious, unconscious
"a diagnosis of psychosomatic illness should not be made lightly"
2.
relating to the interaction of mind and body.
"hypnosis involves powerful but little-understood psychosomatic interactions"

[blind-eddie]

I thought I may get in trouble for posting this with curse words in so I took the liberty of changing the spelling of a curse word so I wont get an infraction.
Here go's.....



Phucktard
noun,
A person of unbelieveable, inexcuseable and indescribable stupidity. (Stupidity being defined as "knowing how and doing it wrong anyway")

NOT A CONTRACTION FOR "****ING RETARD"! Those who are truly "Retarded" are not responsible for their affliction. True ****tards are 100% responsible for their situation and provide vast entertainment as they are usually blissfully unaware of their own ****tardery. Most politicians for example.
One who would actually piss on a live transformer. One who would use a live .22 round for a fuse in their pickup truck "just cuz it fits" and then complain about it shooting them in the nuts.

He shot himself in the nuts? Geez, what a ****tard!

[sixty seven]

rudeness