flwyd | Reading

Posted by sallymn

https://1word1day.livejournal.com/1048935.html

anthropophagite [an-thruh-pof-uh-jahyt]

noun:
eater of human flesh; cannibal

Examples:

'Red Dragon,' which opens nationwide today, is a thriller too timid to thrill because it's the devil we not only know, but that audiences have come to love; it features the best known anthropophagite since Grendel stalked the world of Beowulf. (Elvis Mitchell, Film Review: Taking A Bite Out Of Crime, New York Times, October 2002)

Her prepublication party - an abstracted anthropophagite feast (the photo is by partygoer Bill Richert) - didn't include her dad's recipe for steak tartare, but given her point that we all have 'cannibals in our closets', I think it might come in handy if the global food crisis continues to worsen. (Mike Sula, Carole Travis-Henikoff's steak tartare, Chicago Tribune, June 2008)

The anthropophagites on 'The Walking Dead' on Sunday didn’t discriminate between Daryl the redneck and Rick, a sheriff’s deputy. (Elvis Mitchell, In a Hell, but in It Together, New York Times, October 2014)

The thoroughbred Anthropophagite usually begins with his own relations and friends; and so long as he confines his voracity to the domestic circle, the law interferes little, if at all, with his venerable propensities. (Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do With It)

Are not all those sovereigns, who to gratify the vanity of the priesthood, torment and persecute their subjects, who sacrifice to their anthropophagite gods human victims, men whom superstitious zeal has converted into tygers? (baron d' Paul Henri Thiry Holbac, The System of Nature, or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World)

Origin:

1807, from Greek anthrōpophagos 'man-eating,' from anthrōpos 'man, human' (see anthropo-) + phagos 'eating' (from PIE root bhag- 'to share out, apportion; to get a share') (Online Etymology Dictionary)

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sallymn posting in

1word1day

anthropophagite [an-thruh-pof-uh-jahyt]

noun:
eater of human flesh; cannibal

Examples:

siderea

I have a question about eye safety, maybe someone here can advise me on.

Apropos of the protests going on, I've seen a lot of helpful pointers about preparing for getting tear gassed or pepper sprayed, such as not to wear contacts and to have tight-fitting chemists' goggles. But not wearing vision correction is not an option for those who need it, and the alternative to contacts is glasses, which are apparently incompatible with most eye protection from gas or particulates.

I am aware of the existence of some models of full-face gas mask that have internal mounting hardware for glasses, but in addition to being expensive themselves, they require getting lenses made and fitted to the gas mask (i.e. not compatible with regular glasses). I'm surmising the existence of these means that other, cheaper, spectacle-compatible eye protection doesn't really exist, but I thought I'd ask.

My personal interest in the topic is less about protecting myself from chemical ordnance at protests – I only wish I could attend protests (though if things got spicy in the right location I suppose I could collect my fair share of tear gas at home) – than from wildfire smoke. The conjunction of the No Kings protests and the local air quality alerts from fires in Canada reminded me I should really be doing some preparation in this space.

I'm allergic to smoke. (It turns out it wasn't con crud I kept getting at Pennsic.) My reactivity to smoke only seems to be gradually getting worse over time. So when I've heard reports or seen pictures from the left coast of the sorts of wildfire smog they have there, I'm like "...not enough steroids in the world." I mostly manage this threat by not crossing the Mississippi, but it could happen here. Or upwind of here. It has. If not quite so "blot out the sun" bad, certainly bad enough for me to feel it.

So I've been looking at half-face elastomeric respirators, but that leave eyes unprotected.

Any suggestions?

Edit: I'm getting a lot of suggestions that aren't really helpful because:

1) Most safety goggles are for protection against impact or splashes, and as such literally have vent holes that make them useless against gases and airborne particulates.

2) Involve buying a prescription eyepiece. The whole point of my question was looking for alternatives to buying additional prescription lenses. Like I said, I am already aware of options that entail ordering custom lenses, I am looking for alternatives that don't involve that and are compatible with regular glasses the wearer already has.

There may not be any*, which would be good to know, but that is the question.

Allow me to put a finer point on this. If there is no affordable, readily available option for eye protection against gas/powder attacks for people who are dependent on vision correction, then that implies something important about protest safety that is entirely missing from all of the discourse of the sort that recommends having a gas mask to go to a protest.

* Since posting, I learned the term PAPR, and am now wondering why they're so expensive and whether that's a technology ripe for DIY.

prettygoodword

polyamory (pol-ee-AM-er-ee) - n., the state or practice of having romantic or sexual relationships with multiple partners with the knowledge and consent of all involved.

Okay, so poly- means many rather than specifically large, but that's because operates on discrete rather than continuous sets. It comes from Ancient Greek polús, many, from a PIE root that meant both many and much, so agnostic on the discrete/continuum divide. As for the word, it was formed in 1992* as a derivative of polyamorous, which was coined in 1990 pairing it with Latin amor, love. Other words with poly- include polygamy ("many marriages"), which was used as a pattern for coining polyamory, and polyglot ("[speaking] many languages").

* Interestingly, the first recorded use is the proposal to create the Usenet group alt.polyamory.

Bonus prefix: I wanted to also use super- but it has many meanings other than just large, most related to being either over or above in literal or metaphoric ways. So it's a bonus.

And that wraps up a week of 'large' prefixes. While it's tempting to go onto a week of prefixes that are actually large/long, time to return to the regular mix next week.

---L.

calzephyr posting in

1word1day

Frankalmoigne

I screenshotted this word, but didn't realize it was such a doozy!

This medieval English legal concept is also spelled frank almoin or frankalmoign and describes a tenure by which a religious body holds land given to them, on the condition that prayers for the soul of the donor and heirs are offered.

prettygoodword

maxicab (MAKS-ee-kab) - (Hong Kong) n., a minibus used as a shared taxi.

Maxi- gets used to indicate something larger than typical. Its etymology is less direct than others so far -- created in English by clipping maximum on the model of how mini- was apparently clipped from minimum (narrator: it wasn't, it was clipped from miniature). Maximum itself is from Latin maximus, the superlative of magnus, great, making it a cognate with mega-. Other words with maxi- include maxipad ("large [sanitary] pad") and maxiskirt ("large/long skirt," specifically ankle-length).

---L.

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Posted by calzephyr77

https://1word1day.livejournal.com/1048775.html

Frankalmoigne -

I screenshotted this word, but didn't realize it was such a doozy!

This medieval English legal concept is also spelled frank almoin or frankalmoign and describes a tenure by which a religious body holds land given to them, on the condition that prayers for the soul of the donor and heirs are offered.

https://1word1day.livejournal.com/1048775.html

prettygoodword

megafauna (MEG-uh-faw-nuh) - n., large animals, esp. relatively large for a particular region, period, or habitat; (outdated) animals large enough to be seen with the unaided eye.

Ancient Greek mégas meant great/large/mighty, cognate with Latin magnus and English much, is the source of today's prefix, which got a popularity boost for being used in the metric system to mean a million-x unit (though the scaling is modified to 2²⁰ in computing contexts). The most recent ice ages were known for animals that were larger than their modern counterparts, which is the most common use for megafauna that I meet. The term was coined in 1876 by Alfred Russel Wallace, though it was not commonly used until the 1920s. Other words with mega- include megaton ("a million tons") and megabrew ("large-batch beer").

---L.

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Posted by simplyn2deep

https://1word1day.livejournal.com/1048379.html

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Disheveled (adjective)
di·shev·eled [dih-shev-uhld]

adjective, Also, especially British, di·shev·elled.
1. hanging loosely or in disorder; unkempt: disheveled hair.
2. untidy; disarranged: a disheveled appearance.

Other Word Forms
un di·shev eled adjective

Related Words
bedraggles, messy, rumpled

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
Synonyms
2. rumpled, messy, slovenly, sloppy.

Origin: 1375–1425; late Middle English discheveled < Old French deschevele, past participle of descheveler to dishevel the hair, equivalent to des- dis- + -cheveler, derivative of chevel a hair < Latin capillus

Example Sentences
Devon's a disheveled, sweaty wreck storming the gates of the Kells’ orderly Elysium precisely when Michaela’s garden party is kicking off, the first of several she's planned for that weekend.
From Salon

A disheveled woman then emerges from the side of the building, meets Frankie’s stare and moves off into the night.
From Los Angeles Times

Moments later, a frantic housekeeper rifles through the kitchen drawers, then returns to raise a heavy marble rolling pin over the disheveled and bloodied figure, who is by all appearances pleading for her life.
From Salon

We learn that this disheveled gangster has bona fide empathy.
From Los Angeles Times

With a gimlet eye and a surprisingly girlish laugh, Vera is cantankerous, impatient, intensely private, unapologetically disheveled and utterly glorious.
From Los Angeles Times

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simplyn2deep posting in

1word1day

prettygoodword

hyperspace (HAI-per-spays) - n., (math.) a Euclidean space of more than three dimensions; (science fiction) a notional space orthogonal to the usual dimensions of space-time often used for faster-than-light travel.

The mathematical term came first, coined in 1867 when mathematicians were first working through concepts of n-dimensional topology. Using higher dimensions as a shortcut emerged as a concept in the late 1920s, in stories by Kirk Meadowcroft and John Campbell (hyper-drive, a mechanism for traveling through hyperspace, was coined in 1941). The prefix hyper- (from Ancient Greek hupér, over) can many anything from over/above and beyond to excessive and intensely as well as huge/giant -- several meanings apply here, but "extra" more or less encompasses all of them. Other words with hyper- include hyperactive ("excessively active") and hypertext ("text that is beyond [the current text]").

---L.

stonepicnicking_okapi posting in

1word1day

sniglet [snig-lit]

noun

1. often humorous word made up to describe something for which no dictionary word exists

examples

1. One might say I'm even a disciple of Tom Poston, a description for which a "sniglet" has been coined: "Tompostle" POSTON NOTE Toby O'B 2005

2. Embarrassingly, I remember the sniglet (remember sniglets?) for the place in the atmosphere where missing socks go when the disappear from the dryer: it's called the hozone. Coleman Camp: The Missing Ballots Don't Exist; Officials: Yes, They Do, 2009

origin

introduced by comedian Rich Hall in the 1980s TV comedy series "Not Necessarily the News."

prettygoodword

Another theme week -- following on 'all' prefixes with 'large' prefixes, and following on the universe with the:

macrocosm (MAK-ruh-koz-uhm) - n., the universe considered as a whole; the total or entire complex structure of something; a complex structure, such as a society, considered as a single entity that contains numerous similar, smaller-scale structures.

Coined in Medieval Latin (and taken into English via French around 1600) from Ancient Greek roots makrós, large/long/far + kósmos, the universe -- which sounds like a redundancy: The universe already contains all, so why additionally specify that it's large? That last sense is the key one, as philosophers needed words for the concepts of macrocosm and microcosm, that the whole is reflected in its parts -- that as on earth so in heaven, and that there's correspondences between, for example, the human body and the heavens:

Thanks, WikiMedia!

This is a very common concept in ancient philosophies worldwide, including Ancient Greece, and theorizing about it continued in the European Middle Ages and Renaissance. Other words with macro- include macrobiotic ("prolonging life") and macrometer ("large/long measurement"). (I was going to use macron, but that's not a prefix but rather noun use of the neuter of makrós, and not prefixing anything.)

---L.

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Posted by sallymn

https://1word1day.livejournal.com/1048259.html

sploot [sploot]

verb:
(slang, of an animal) to lie flat on the stomach with the legs stretched out
noun:
the act or an instance of splooting

(click to enlarge)
Examples:

There’s the classic sploot (one leg remains beneath the body while the other leg is kicked back), the side sploot (one leg is tucked under the body while the other is kicked out to the side) and a full sploot (the animal has kicked both legs behind the body, exhibiting a full body stretch). (Hannah Docter-Loeb, Who Sploots?, Slate, August 2022)

But even in the chillier climes like Laramie, squirrels will sploot on warmer days. The upside to what Koprowski called heat islands is that cement sidewalks, while also retaining heat, will retain cooler temperatures while in the shade. (Joshua Wood, U W Professor, Who Is World’s Foremost Authority On Squirrels, Says Splooting Is OK, Cowboy State Daily, August 2022)

Snellby Kay said her household refers to the position as "road kill pose," and Brianna Portillo called it the "sploot." (Sophie Lloyd, Cat's Bizarre Sleeping Position Confuses Internet: 'Airplane Mode', Newsweek, July 2023)

I think a senior cat who still gets the zoomies would love her own bean bag chair to sploot in! (Eve Vawter, Scottish Fold Cat’s Beanbag Sploot Is the AMSR Therapy Session We Didn’t Know We Needed, Parade Pets, April 2025)

Origin:

Sploot is part of a growing lexicon of 'DoggoLingo', which uses cute, deliberate misspellings and onomatopoeias like mlem, blep, smol, borf, and heckin to fawn over man’s best friend online - and the many, many pictures and videos we post of them. While the exact origins of sploot are unclear, lexicographer Grant Barrett of the A Way with Words radio show has suggested that the term sploot may riff on the word splat to characterize the splat-like (flat, spread-out) appearance of a sploot pose. This wordplay mirrors other changes made to existing words in DoggoLingo, like the substitution of chonky for chunky. Sploot is especially associated with corgis, a squat breed of dogs with very short legs. The use of sploot, as associated with pets, is evidenced by at least 2012. (Dictionary.com)

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sallymn posting in

1word1day

sploot [sploot]

verb:
(slang, of an animal) to lie flat on the stomach with the legs stretched out
noun:
the act or an instance of splooting

(click to enlarge)
Examples:

siderea

2025 Jun 7 11:40 am:

benjalvarez1 on Twitter:

WATCH THIS: https://x.com/BenjAlvarez1/status/1931375699786334704

Click through to see the video. You really, really should. Sound is irrelevant.

Text: "Tanks, fighting vehicles and howitzers arrive in Washington, D.C. ahead of next week's military parade. They departed from Texas on June 2." Two minutes and forty seconds.

Allegedly that train is a mile long and is transporting:

• 28 Abrams tanks (M1A2 main battle tank)
• 3 armored recovery vehicles (M88)
• 28 Bradleys (M2A3 infantry fighting vehicle)
• 5 Paladins (M109A7 self-propelled howitzer), and
• 28 Strykers (infantry carrier vehicle)

Source: 2025 Jun 6: @USAMilitaryChannel on YT [not official military channel]: "1-Mile Military Train -Texas to D.C. with Tanks, Armor, and More for Army's 250th Parade". I do not know if that source is reputable or if that inventory is accurate.

USA Today is reporting that "The military vehicles will be joined by 1,800 soldiers". (Source: 2025 Jun 6, USATODAY on YT: "Watch: Tanks, fighting vehicles head to DC for Trump's military parade", CW: face full of Trump, alt: screenshot).

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that maybe the guy who attempted one coup already bringing a well-armed military force into our capitol city and, crucially, within artillery-range of the Pentagon, is just throwing himself a birthday party, but also maybe not.

ETA: For those of you confused by this, thinking, but doesn't he already control the military? You might want to watch this video about the rise of Xi Jinping.

Now, obviously, Trump would never play a long game like Xi did. But, 1) there are other ways to achieve the same end and 2) he doesn't have to, because his buddies, the Dominionists, did.

full_metal_ox posting in

1word1day

(Image description: a Tweet from Mykhailo Lavrovskyi:

Americans are learning the depths of the Ukrainian concept of zhabohadyuking.

Zhabohadyuking

(noun, slang, ironic)
[From Ukrainian zbaba (frog) + hadyuka (viper) + English-style suffix -ing]

Definition: a messy, absurd conflict in which both sides are equally awful, toxic, or ridiculous.

Origin: The term comes from a Ukrainian expression “the frog is screwing the viper” (їба́ла жа́ба гадю́ку)—a vulgar, folkloric way of saying “this is a hideous match-up no one asked for.”

Source: https://x.com/Lavrovskyi/status/1930702385154077045; via

mariakov81 on Tumblr, including an audio pronunciation: https://mariakov81.tumblr.com/post/785622581755674624/maria-zhabohad

Music: “Yakety Sax”.

prettygoodword

universe (YOO-nuh-vurs) - n., all of spacetime and all it contains; a hypothetical spacetime-and-contents that supposed to exist simultaneously with but different from this universe; whole world in the sense of perspective or social setting, a sphere of interest, activity, or understanding.

And other extended meanings, including a set of stories/films/etc. that share a continuity. Dates to a little before 1400 (insert Chaucer citation), Middle English form identical to Modern English, from either Old French univers or Italian universo, from Latin ūniversum, all things/as a whole/the universe, noun use of the neuter of ūniversus, all together/whole, literally "turned into one," from uni-, combining form of unus, one + versus turned (perfect passive participle of vertō, to turn). Other words with uni- include uniform ("having one form/shape") and unibrow ("having one [eye]brow").

And that wraps up a week of all prefixes -- er, 'all' prefixes.

---L.

grim23

“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

Body/Martial Arts/Physical Improvement/Testing: No progress.

May's GoRuck 'Believe' Challenges are ongoing. The workout is the traditional 'Murph' Challenge. The Murph Challenge is "not just a physical test, but also a mental and emotional one. Participants are pushed to their limits and are encouraged to keep pushing through the pain and exhaustion, just as Lieutenant Michael Murphy did during his final moments." At the Tough level, it is a 1-mile ruck, 200 Sandbag Bent Over Rows (the substitute for 100 pull-ups), 200 Pushups, and 300 Squats, and then another 1-mile ruck, all wearing a 20-lb. plate carrier, and using a 60-lb. sandbag. The F*CK is Max reps of strict pull-ups in one set. No progress.

Mind/Spirit/Centering/Health: I've started rereading The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön. I've completed the first week of a 4-week free college course, from Harvard Medical School, called Lessons from Ebola: Preventing the Next Pandemic.I once again 'sat' loving-kindness virtual zazen, thinking of The Old Man and Alfie, his dog. I am still having trouble reading, concentrating, or thinking. I have had a 'therapy' session with my clinical supervisor, and many supportive people are checking up on me.

In Case of Zombies/Disaster Preparation: I'm continuing Jim Cobb's Countdown to Preparedness book/assignments. This week (week 19) is about getting caught up on health maintenance issues, and I will be scheduling all of my medical and dental appointments soon.

Maintenance/Shit Got To Be Done: No progress.

Base Station/Ol' Number 3: Excavation for the Shop is ongoing. The ground has been cleared for the septic lines. The old concrete has been removed, and the shop site is being leveled and expanded for new concrete and retaining walls.

Travel/Adventure/Doing Stuff: No progress. Alfie, the Old Man's dog, has been sent back to the rescue organization, giving me more freedom to travel and resume my professional life. I am at the Gate House, cleaning and working on a legal/social/financial checklist of things to be canceled and changed, and also working on some of the little projects at Base Station, and also at the Hideaway, sorting and clearing things to go to Base Station. I was part of a Funeral ritual/Greater Feast for one of the Presidents of my motorcycle club, and I took possession of President Maverick's colors.

Mood: numb
Location: office
Music: Shinedown: Three Six Five

altamira16

Britney Griner is 6'9". At the beginning of this book, she is rushing with her bags out the door to catch a plane to Russia to play basketball. She forgot some nearly empty vapes in her bag, and that leads to being incarcerated in Russia for nine months. Her passport is confiscated at the airport. She is moved to pretrial detention, and she has to return to court over and over until trial and sentencing.

Because she is such a tall person, nothing fits. Her legs hang off the end of the bed until they make a bed that is the correct size for her. The gulag uniforms don't fit until she has a seamstress who makes her a new one.

After reading this and To Build a Castle by Vladimir Bukovsky, I am pretty sure that to survive your time in a Russian gulag, you are just supposed to take up chain smoking. It is mandatory.

She lost nearly thirty pounds while in the gulag.

Her wife Cherelle, the WNBA, and others advocated for her release, and it was great to see the love of the community shine through. But in Russia, lesbianism seems to be treated like a mental disorder so everyone is incredulous that she has a wife.

Her wife was finishing law school and attempting to pass the bar exam while advocating for Griner's release.

I thought that this book was really well done, and the warmth of Griner and her community balanced out the part about being in a Russian gulag.

prettygoodword

holocaust (HOL-uh-kawst, HOH-luh-kawst) - n., a sacrifice that is completely burned to ashes, burnt offering; complete destruction by fire, the thing so destroyed; (usually as the Holocaust) the mass slaughter of European civilians and especially Jews by the Nazis during World War II; any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life esp. by human agency.

A lot to unpack here. :deep breath: The burnt offering sense dates to the 1300s, used to translate Hebrew ‘ōlâ, "that which goes up [in smoke]," in Biblical contexts, from Late Latin holocaustum, from Ancient Greek holókauston, neuter of holókaustos, wholly burnt, used of sacrifices burnt to ashes rather than shared with the celebrants, from holo-, whole/entire + kaustós, burnt. The first extended sense developed in the 1600s, and was broadened in the 1900s to encompass other types of catastrophes, a usage now deprecated. It was first applied to what the Nazis did in 1942, but the proper noun doesn't appear until the late 1950s and wasn't widespread until around 1970. Because of that specialized use, the application to other destruction has become mostly restricted to human agency. :exhales: Other words with holo- include hologram ("whole stroke/line [i.e. drawing]") and holistic ("pertaining to the whole").

---L.

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Posted by calzephyr77

https://1word1day.livejournal.com/1047930.html

Zaouli

This is a topic where I will defer to Wikipedia's expertise:

Zaouli or Zawli is a traditional dance of the Guro people (who speak the Guro language) of central Ivory Coast. The Zaouli mask, used in the dance, was created in the 1950s, reportedly inspired by a girl named "Djela Lou Zaouli" (meaning "Zaouli, daughter of Djela").

By Zenman - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

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calzephyr posting in

1word1day

By Zenman - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

prettygoodword

pandemic (pan-DEM-ik) - adj., (of a disease) epidemic over a large area, prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the world; (in general) widespread, general. n., a disease prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the world.

This prefix, pan-, is from Ancient Greek, where it was also a prefix meaning all/every -- the stem here is also from Ancient Greek, dêmos, the common people/the population, and put together pándēmos meant "of or belonging to all the people." Its application to diseases in English dates to the 1650s (the noun use is from the 1830s). Closely related is epidemic, meaning prevalent throughout a community, so more localized than a pandemic, and endemic, meaning constantly present at a baseline level, so occurring at lower levels than a epidemic/pandemic. Other words with pan- include pandemonium ("all the demons") and panacea ("all-healing").

---L.

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Posted by simplyn2deep

https://1word1day.livejournal.com/1047644.html

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Teratoid (adjective)
teratoid [ ter-uh-toid ]

adjective
1. Biology. resembling a monster.

Related Words
atrocious, dreadful, egregious, freakish, frightful, grotesque, gruesome, heinous, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrifying, inhuman, intolerable, obscene, odious, outrageous, preposterous, terrible, vicious

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com

Origin: First recorded in 1875–80; terat- + -oid

Example Sentences
She was rushed into life-saving surgery, but the diagnosis was an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, or ATRT, the most common brain cancer in infants and one of the deadliest.
From Washington Post

Doctors said Allia had an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, a rare, fast-growing cancer of the brain and the spinal cord.
From New York Times

Platten sang the hit with a cancer patient, 7-year-old Jeremiah Succar, at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles after finding out through social media that Succar was a huge fan of the song since he was diagnosed with stage-four atypical rhabdoid teratoid in May.
From Time

The fact that this life is being lived right now by developer Ryan Green and his wife as their son undergoes treatment after treatment for Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumors makes this game even more painful and poignant.
From Forbes

Routh suffered from an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor.
From Seattle Times

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1word1day

prettygoodword

omniscient (om-NISH-uhnt) - adj., having total or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding.

Our next all prefix comes from Latin omnis, meaning all. Also a noun, one who is all-knowing. This word was originally coined in Medieval Latin as omnisciēns, from omni(s) + sciēns, knowing (from scīre, to know) -- English as usual took on the stem form omniscient-. The original context was theological. Other words with omni- include omnivore ("eating all [the things]") and omnibus ("for all").

---L.

stonepicnicking_okapi posting in

1word1day

dwam [dwɔːm or dwɑːm]

chiefly Scottish

noun:

1. a fainting spell or sudden attack of illness
2. daydream, reverie

examples:
1. Rebus drove to work next morning in what his father would have called "a dwam," unaware of the world around him. Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin.

2. Online shoppers don't drift or derive or dwam around: they point and click. The Guardian "Tales from the Mall by Ewan Morrison – review." August 2012

origin
akin to Old English dwolma chaos, Old High German twalm bewilderment, stupefaction, Old Norse dylminn careless, indifferent, Gothic dwalmon to be foolish, insane

prettygoodword

Theme week: all prefixes. Or maybe that would be better written as 'all' prefixes -- words with a prefix that means "all," starting with "all" as a prefix:

always (AWL-wayz, AWL-weez) - adv., at all times, invariably; all the time, continuously; for all time, forever; at any time, in any event.

This form (spelled more like alwei/alwaye) appeared in the 14th century as a contraction of Old English ealne weg, where ealne is the accusative (indicating space or distance) of eall, all, and weg is way -- so literally "all the way." The genitive -s, acting as an adverbial suffix, was added around 1400 (even though it was already an adverb) but alway was retained as an archaism. Other words with al- include almighty ("entirely mighty") and altogether ("completely together").

---L.

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Page generated Monday, June 16th, 2025 11:34 am

Dreams With Words

Reading

Sunday Word: Anthropophagite

Sunday Word: Anthropophagite

Tear gas safety for glasses wearers? [curr ev, health]

polyamory

Wednesday Word: Frankalmoigne

maxicab

Wednesday Word: Frankalmoigne

megafauna

Tuesday word: Disheveled

Tuesday word: Disheveled

hyperspace

Monday Word: Sniglet

macrocosm

Sunday Word: Sploot

Sunday Word: Sploot

Tanks, armored vehicles, howitzers delivered to DC [curr ev, US]

Open Mic Saturday Word: Zhabohadyuking.

universe

101/1001 Update

Coming Home by Britney Griner with Michelle Burford

holocaust

Wednesday Word: Zaouli

Wednesday Word: Zaouli

pandemic

Tuesday word: Teratoid

Tuesday word: Teratoid

omniscient

Monday Word: Dwam

always

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