Monday, September 27, 2010

F: Filial Service

Filial: *Of relating to, or befitting a son or daughter: filial respect. Having or assuming the relationship of child or offpring to parent. **Genetics Of or relating to a generation or the sequence of generations from following the parental generation.   
    Service
    Verb 
    1. Work done for others 
    Filial Service: Work done for your family, especially your parents.

    Literary Context (How does the Word Work):
    He holds His position of sonship, and it has confirmed to Him as the reward of filial service.  (Edwards 9)

    My Attempt: 
    The filial ties in a family show the beauty of unconditional love. 

    Hunt for Words: 
    Found word in the commentary to the Epistle to the Hebrews by Thomas Charles Edwards.  The Community Bible Reading is currently reading Hebrews, starting today with Chapter One.   The use of old books, this book came out first in 1887-1888 is a great way to sharpen up one's vocabulary.   

    Audio/Visual: Filial

    Edwards, Thomas Charles D.D. The Epistle to the Hebrews   New York: A.C. Armstrong and Son, 1887-1888.

    Thursday, September 23, 2010

    Rr: Roil

    Definition
    1. To displease or disturb; vex.

    Use at Work:
    The customer totally roiled me with his use of high dudgeon.

    Literary Context: 
    These questions and many others roiled the church and later the Roman Empire, incited rebellion, created new sects, sparked civil and military conflict, and divided earthly power.   They remain without consensus and still roil the ranks of Christianity. pg 47

    Hunt for Words: Found the word in A World Without Islam by Graham E. Fuller,  I have been fascinated with the middle east for a long time now.   This book is excellent so far but I am only 13% of the way done so need to read more before I can evaluate the whole thing.

    Audio/Visual:

    Tuesday, September 21, 2010

    hd: High Dudgeon

    Definition:
    N. A feeling of intense indignation.Feeling great resentment.  Taking great offense at something.

    Use at your next Family Reunion:
    Uncle Tim debated us in such high dudgeon fashion, because he felt we were judgmental Christians; he feared we hated him for his atheistic philosophy.

    Literary Context:
    She heard an Italian tossing off English slang to a German butcher, and a Russian in high dudgeon hurling French curses at a German taxi driver.  pg 96

    Hunt for Words: Found the word reading Nancy Horan's Novel Loving Frank.  Had never seen the word before this.

    Audio/Visual

    Monday, September 20, 2010

    Pp: Pages (Hotel Style)


    Definition:

    1. A boy who acted as a knight's attendent as the first stage of training for chivalric knighthood.
    2. One who is employed to run errands, carry messages, or act as a guide in a hotel, theatre, club or the U.S. Congress or another legislature.  
    Simple Sentence to Use at the Next Hotel You Stay In:
    Calling the front desk, "Can you send a page right away, with the complementary towell, toothpaste, and bar of soap to room 212, thanks!"

    Literary Context:
    Pages swished quietly past the skirts and luggage of new arrivals.  pg 91

    Word Hunt: 
    Found the word in the book Loving Frank.   I knew the meaning but I thought what if people only have the one meaning of the word page to mean parts of a book.  Or a sheet of paper.   The whole paragraph would be lost and look completely different, you would have floating sheets of paper quietly passing the skirts and luggage of new arrivals.  I would want to know what was written on the sheets of paper.  But this actually means that people with messages were running this way and that.   


    Sunday, September 19, 2010

    Cc: Coward as Defined by Ambrose Bierce

    Coward, n.: One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.
    Ambrose Bierce


    Saturday, September 18, 2010

    Bb: Bodacious






    adj.
    1. Remarkable; prodigious.
    2. Audacious; gutsy.
    adv.
    1. Completely; extremely.
    2. Audaciously; boldly.

    [Probably from dialectal boldacious, blend of bold and audacious.]
    Regional Note: Popularized in the comic strip Snuffy Smith, bodacious is probably a blend of the wordsbold and audacious, whose combined senses are evident in the following description of Sevier County, Tennessee, as "the most bodacious display of tourism this side of Anaheim" (Los Angeles Times). A more traditional meaning is "remarkable, prodigious": "a bodacious amount of smoke" (Springfield MA Morning Union); "the most bodacious tale of hidden treasure" (Lawrence E. Will). Bodacious can also be an adverbial intensifier: "She's so bowdacious unreasonable when she's raised [irritated]" (William T. Thompson). African-American speech in New York City retains this Southernism as bardacious. Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary cites the form boldacious, which is the likely source for bodacious.


    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

    Simple Sentence to Use at Your Next Ice-Cream Social:
    "That Golfer Redbeard, is surely a Bodacious-Man, he got an eagle, a birdie, and a birdie on the first three holes."  said Red Orem.
    Words in Context:
    As we allow someone to give us a stupendous gift without phony resistance, so we should celebrate this most Bodacious Gift of all and enjoy the celebration with the Giver.  August 18th in the Book of Encouragement by Harold Myra. 

    Hunting Words in the Wild: 
    Found the word when I was researching the book of Encouragement by Harold Myra, which I am planning to review on September 25th.  
    Audio Visual:


    Friday, September 17, 2010

    Ss: Steampunk

    I may dress as a Steampunk for Halloween
    Steampunk 


    (Wikipedia Article) is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternative history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980's and early 1990's.   The term denotes fictional works set in an are where steam power is still widely used, usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain. and it often features anachronistic technology,  or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have seen them. The technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of Jules Verne or real technological developments like the personal computer.  


    Satirical Definition from Urban Dictionary: 

    A group of 40 something virgins that seriously need to get over themselves - They ponce around with cogs, plastic guns and "rocket powered" roller skates, desperately craving the tiniest morsel of attention from anybody who will even catch them in the corner of their (non-mechanical) eye. It would be SLIGHTLY impressive (but still ridiculously pointless) ....If they are going to continue to manufacture corrigated cardboard machine outfits, at least, MAKE SURE THEY FUNCTION!!! Wearing monacles, top-hats, badly tailored suits, penny whistles sprayed silver, pocket watches and faux rocket-packs - They have established themselves as the latest brigade of complete and utter self-indulgent tools....:

    Simple Sentence to Use at your Club's Next Cocktail Party:
    Person 1: "Oh my God!  Look at all of those Steam Punk wannabees at this Halloween party; They think they're out of that...that one movie with Will Smith...(clicks fingers)... what utter Schmucks!!!"
    Person 2: They look.. what's the word, like a bunch of Ferdinands prancing in the pansies...
    Person 1: "Yup!"
    Person 2: "What a bunch of -
    Person 1: "I know! When do you think they last saw a fanny?"
    Person 2: "When their mothers released them onto the dirty floor of the old watch shop... about 40 years ago!"
    Person 1: "Prigs! I hate Steampunks!"
    Person 2 (shouting at Steampunks): "Yeah Man!!!! Let's blow this...!!!!
    They rush out into the cold, crisp, October Night.
    Words in Context:
    The game is a steampunk, fantasy MMO with large battlefields where hundreds of players do battle, features a deep crafting system, and has vehicle carriers that can ferry anywhere between 3 and 10 players into battle at a time. 

    The Hunt for Words:  
    I found the word used on twitter: Minervity 




    Steampunk Costume - http://bit.ly/30V0O8

    Audio/Visual 

    Wednesday, September 15, 2010

    Bb: Braggadocio


    n. pl. brag·ga·do·ci·os
    1. A braggart.
    2.
    a. Empty or pretentious bragging.
    b. A swaggering, cocky manner.

    [Alteration of Braggadocchio, the personification of vainglory in The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, from brag.]

    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


    Simple Sentence to Use at Your Club's Next Cocktail Party:
    We all knew that Mr. Machio was a braggadocio.. We didn't believe that he went to Harvard;  nor that he had worked for NASA and planted a flag on the moon; nor that he had amassed millions before he had lost it all in Vegas.   


    Words in Context:
    On the following morning, Captain Bonneville purchased a supply of buffalo meat from his braggadocio friends; who, with all their vaporing, were in fact a very forlorn horde, destitute of firearms, and of almost everything that constitutes riches in savage life.The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, U.S.A., in the Rocky Mountains and the far West by Irving, Washington View in context


    The Hunt for Words: Inspired to look up word because of Joseph Campbell's belief in Metaphor being more than a simile; so then I looked at the references in J.A. Cuddon's book A Dictionary of Literary Terms,  for metaphor, which then brought me to archetype.  Under character archetypes I found the word braggadocio, which I did not know so I looked it up.    


    Audio/Visual

    Tuesday, September 14, 2010

    Pp: Phrenology

    Following the materialist notions of mental functions originating in the brain, phrenologists believed that human conduct could best be understood in neurological rather than abstract terms.  Wikipedia Article on Phrenology. 
    Word in Context:
    "People talk a lot of guff about American magic, but I assure you are quit up to the international standard.  In Zurich, they still teach Phrenology, if you can believe it." Lev Gross Magician page 39.

    Use at Your Next Cocktail Party
    According to Phrenology, the size of Greg's head made him capable of much intellectual pursuits.

    Monday, September 13, 2010

    Ww: Weasel Words

    Weasel words is an informal term[1] for words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated. Read more from Wikipedia on Weasel Words

    Friday, September 10, 2010

    Pp: Ptomaine

    n.
    A basic nitrogenous organic compound produced by bacterial putrefaction of protein.

    [Italian ptomaina, from Greek ptmacorpse, from piptein, pt-to fall; see pet- in Indo-European roots.]

    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
    IN Context:
    Why, Windrips just something nasty that's been vomited up.   Plenty others still left fermenting in the stomach-quack economists with every sort of ptomaine
    pg 109 Sinclair lewis It Can't Happen Here

    Thursday, September 9, 2010

    Mm: Mannishness: Mannishness

    Mannish \Man"nish\, a. [Man + -ish: cf. AS. mennisc, menisc.]



    1. Resembling a human being in form or nature; human.
          --Chaucer.
          [1913 Webster]
    
                But yet it was a figure
                Most like to mannish creature.        --Gower.
          [1913 Webster]
    
       2. Resembling, suitable to, or characteristic of, a man,
          manlike, masculine. --Chaucer.
          [1913 Webster]
    
                A woman impudent and mannish grown.   --Shak.
          [1913 Webster]
    
       3. Fond of men; -- said of a woman. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
          [1913 Webster] -- Man"nish*ly,adv. -- Man"nish*ness,
          n.
          [1913 Webster]See also:
    Man"nish*ly Man"nish*ness 
    


    Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48


    In Context:
    Christian Louboutin The distinctions between boyishness and mannishness, and between masculine masquerade and masculine costume, are crucial. Nowhere does Liscombe describe herself or her friends as manly (or as interested in parodying men); but this is not to say that she is unaware of the “styling” adopted by Christian Louboutin Trottinette Boots Suede Black 15 mannish women. This insight is recorded during her travels to Boston when she describes some patrons at a YWCA cafeteria: This was a group of ladies who apparently were not in Boston for any W.M.S. convention. They talked and laughed loudly and smoked incessantly and they didn’t smoke like blase sophisticated women, you know, two little puffs and then a gentle strike on the side of the saucer, or a cautious finger removing the ash, but they blew the smoke with a sharp blast through the nose and did their talking with cigarette dangling from lower lip. And I bet they told good jokes too! (1934b, 28) I have Christian Louboutin Trottinette ankle boots Brown 14 made the point that Liscombe understood the line separating decent women from “loose” ones. Frida’s sexual display and Gertrude’s cigarettes (and flirting and makeup) signal “cheap” women; but the YWCA ladies’ dangling smokes, along with their loud voices and other “sharp” mannerisms, mark them as mannish. After Radclyffe Hall’s 1928 “queer moment,” masculine, cigarettesmoking women such as those Liscombe describes during this 1934 trip are often associated with lesbianism (Oosterhuis 2000, 66; Behling 2001, 3; Doan 2001, 1078). Since divergence from the social norm is noticed, Gertrude, Frida, and the YWCA Christian Louboutin Tall Platform Boots Black 13 are objects of fascination in a culture that leaves little room to deviate. Perhaps that is why Liscombe has coded language for her university crushes and why she continues to go off with her female friends for “twilight moments” across Sydney’s Harbour to “the rock” near Crawley’s Creek, or into the backwoods off the Highland Trail where there is more privacy for a sartorial aesthetic that would not stigmatize the group as mannish or as lesbian. Ella Liscombe’s story is a remarkable combination of self-invention and selfknowledge. She manages to live the life she wants.
    Audio/Video


    Wednesday, September 8, 2010

    Rr: Repose

    n.
    1. The act of resting or the state of being at rest.
    2. Freedom from worry; peace of mind.
    3. Calmness; tranquillity.
    v. re·posedre·pos·ingre·pos·es
    v.tr.
    1. To lay (oneself) down.
    2. To rest or relax (oneself).
    v.intr.
    1. To lie at rest.
    2. To lie dead: repose in a grave.
    3. To lie while being supported by something.

    [From Middle English reposento be at rest, from Old French reposer, from Late Latin repausre,to cause to rest : Latin re-re- + Latin pausreto rest (from Latin pausarest; see pause).]

    IN CONTEXT:
    The word "repose" floated in the air as Frank looked around at the women.  He seemed to be taking measure of them,  as a preacher might.  pg 10 (Loving Frank Nancy Horan)

    Audio/Video

    Tuesday, September 7, 2010

    Mm: mellifluous

    adj.
    1. Flowing with sweetness or honey.
    2. Smooth and sweet: "polite and cordial, with a mellifluous, well-educated voice" (H.W. Crocker III).

    [Middle English, from Late Latin mellifluus : Latin mel, mell-honey; see melit- in Indo-European roots + Latin -fluusflowing; see bhleu- in Indo-European roots.]


    In context: Ezra Pound (from Gaudier-Brzeska, 1916)
    When I find people ridiculing the new arts, or making fun of the clumsy odd terms that we use in trying to talk of them amongst ourselves; when they laugh at our talking about the "ice-block quality" in Picasso, I think it is only because they do not know what thought is like, and they are familiar only with argument and gibe and opinion. That is to say, they can only enjoy what they have been brought up to consider enjoyable, or what some essayist has talked about in mellifluous phrases. They think only "the shells of thought," as de Gourmont calls them; the thoughts that have been already thought out by others.

    So in this context the words mellifluous phrases means, phrases that are pleasant, phrases that make good dinner party conversation, words that have spoken by others and are well accepted.  



     

    Sunday, September 5, 2010

    BV: Black Vodka





    A unique vodka with a smooth animated character. Smirnoff Black is a small -batch vodka that uses 100 year old pot-stills for distilling.


    Saturday, September 4, 2010

    Hh: Hobbesian

    English philosopher and political theorist best known for his book Leviathan (1651), in which he argues that the only way to secure civil society is through universal submission to the absolute authority of a sovereign.

    Hobbesi·an adj.

    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
    In Context:
    The authors further classify the books by using a Kantian or Hobbesian position regarding their optimistic or pessimistic outlooks. For the uninitiated, the authors provide a quick description of both philosophers. On the optimistic side, Immanuel Kant, a Prussian philosopher who lived in the 1700s, focused on the spread of the rule of law and constitutional republics as key components leading to a peaceful world. On the pessimistic side, Thomas Hobbes, a British philosopher of the 1600s, believed in strong central governments, whether democratic or not, as the key to ensuring security of the state and, thus, peace through strength when dealing with other states.

    Each chapter reviews books with a common theme or bent. Seeing the Elephant opens with reviews of books written shortly after the downfall of communism, when it was easy to envision a new international society based on the ideas of democracy and globalization. It follows with the pessimistic reaction of writers to this initial surge of optimism, covering books written primarily since the late 1990s and dealing with such topics as the rise of terrorism and the uneven tensions produced by globalization. Other chapters address writings concerning the effect of technology on the world economy and security, US grand strategy in both a neo-Kantian and neo-Hobbesian world, and US defense strategies.

    As the authors state in the preface, "the primary audience for this book is the students of America's war colleges." Essentially the CliffsNotes or "dirty purples" for a great list of books regarding strategic thought and the US role in global security, Seeing the Elephant should be mandatory reading at the beginning of each new class. Hopefully the authors will update it periodically to keep pace with developing ideas. 



    Wednesday, September 1, 2010

    Ww: "Warp and Woof"


    n.
    The underlying structure on which something is built; a base or foundation: "profound dislocations throughout the entire warp and woof of the American economy" (David A. Stockman).

    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


    Little I guessed how all the warp and woof of that man- world was entangled with alcohol.