Go ![]() | New ![]() | Find ![]() | Notify ![]() | Tools ![]() | Reply ![]() | ![]() |
Member |
Have you met people of the sorts we'll name or describe this week? polymath– a person of great or varied learning quote:Bonus word: paradigm – something that serves as a model, example, or pattern Per AHD, 'paradigm' is also used to mean 'the prevailing view of things', but the experts are evenly split over whether that use is approved. Example: The paradigm governing international competition and competitiveness has shifted dramatically. | ||
|
Member |
mossback – a very old-fashioned person, one with ancient views or thinking; an old fogy quote: | |||
|
Member |
mendicant – a beggar adj: begging for a living. [The word is also used for religious orders that at one time so supported themselves. It is most often found in a religious concext.] quote: | |||
|
Member |
In my youth, before I discovered my mortality, I used to yell "death to mendicants!" at panhandlers. | |||
|
Member |
I wonder if there's any connection between 'mendicant' and "mendacious: lying, untruthful". | |||
|
Member |
Gamin has two different meanings depending on whether it is used for a male or a female. Gamine, which has two related meanings, is exclusively female. gamin (male) – boy who hangs around on the streets; a street urchin. The word carries the implication of a clever, roguish child. quote:Gamine, the feminine form, has a second meaning not pertaing to the streets: Gamine (female) – 1. feminine form of gamin above 2. a playfully mischievous girl or woman of impish appeal. (One source adds that she "is thin, short-haired and attractively like a young boy in appearance: Her newly cropped hair gives her a fashionably gamine look") Coming full circle: gamin (female) - a gamine in the second, impish sense. Most dictionaries omit this female meaning of gamin, but examples in use are not hard to find. I give but one – reluctantly omitting more from The Happy Hooker, Valley of the Dolls, and Robert Ludlum novels – and have put a long one below. quote:This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter, | |||
|
Member |
First salvo of the 1952 advertising campaign for Revlon's Fire and Ice Cosmetics, which was called the most memorable of Revlon's promotions and the one which has made a permanent impression on the cosmetics business. What is the American girl made of? Sugar and spice and everything nice? Not since the days of the Gibson Girl! There's a new American beauty. . . . She's tease and temptress, siren and gamin, dynamic and demure. Men find her slightly, delightfully baffling. Sometimes a little maddening. Yet they admit she's easily the most exciting woman in all the world! She's the 1952 American beauty with a foolproof formula for melting a male! She's the "Fire and Ice" girl. (Are you?)
Do you ever wish on a new moon? Do you blush when you find yourself flirting? When a recipe calls for one dash of bitters, do you think it's better with two? Do you secretly hope the next man you meet will be a psychiatrist? Do you sometimes feel that other women resent you? Have you ever wanted to wear an ankle bracelet? Do sables excite you, even on other women? Do you face crowded parties with panic – then wind up having a wonderful time? Does gypsy music make you sad? Do you think any man really understands you? Would you streak your hair with platinum without telling your husband? If tourist flights were running would you take a trip to Mars? Do you close your eyes when you're kissed? | |||
|
Member |
Today, for Father's Day, fathers may may indulge in a little innocent flânerie. flaneur (fem. (flaneuse) - an aimless idler; a loafer [implies, but not limited to, idle strolling. from F. flâner, to idle about, stroll] (flânerie: the occupation [or lack thereof]) quote:Bonus word: wastrel - 1. a spendthrift; one who squanders money 2. An idler; a loafer; a good-for-nothing | |||
|
Member |
I wonder if there's any connection between 'mendicant' and "mendacious: lying, untruthful". I thought not, but Pokorny does so. Mendax and mendico 'to beg, ask for charity' are supposed to be from the PIE root *mend- 'defect, error, flaw'. Also emendo 'to be free from faults'. | |||
|
Member |
latitudinarian – adj: broadminded; permissive; undogmatic noun: a person of such attitude. [pertains particularly to religious matters, but not always. see quotes below] quote:This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter, | |||
|
Member |
Here are three gradations of the antynom of our flânerie of Father's Day. ergophile – one who loves work ergomaniac – a workaholic karoshi – death caused by overwork or job-related exhaustion. [This is a Japanese term, but it is coming into English and is now listed in OED. Karoshi is a major cause of death in Japan.]This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter, | |||
|
Powered by Social Strata |
![]() | Please Wait. Your request is being processed... |
|