22 August 2015

zounderkite

noun, adjective

– one whose stupid conduct results in awkward mistakes.

The zounderkite was laughing as he teased the dog. Then the dog bit him.

Origin

German

(from C Clough Robinson’s 1876 book Dialect of Mid-Yorkshire)

Anagram

zoned rue kit
it nuked zero

Today’s quote

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr

On this day

22 August 565 – St Columba claims to see a monster in Loch Ness.

22 August 1572 – attempted assassination of Admiral de Coligny, a leading Heugonet Protestant, in Paris. The following day, the main suspects were the Guises (the Cardinal of Lorraine and his nephews) broke into Coligny’s room and dragged him from his sickbed, killed him and threw him from the window. The event triggered the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre on 23-24 August 1572.

22 August 1770 – Captain James Cook sets foot on the east cost of Australia.

22 August 1864 – signing of the First Geneva Convention (for ‘Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field’)

22 August 1917 – birth of John Lee Hooker, American blues guitarist. Died 21 June 2001.

22 August 1920 – birth of Ray Bradbury, American fantasy, science-fiction, horror and mystery fiction writer. Author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustratred Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes. The movie Butterfly Effect uses a similar theory to that described in Bradbury’s short-story A Sound of Thunder. In one scene, a Sound of Thunder pennant is hanging on the dormitory door of the main character, Evan. Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was named after Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury was not happy with this and pressured Moore to change the title, which Moore refused to do. Died 5 June 2012.

22 August 1952 – birth of Joe Strummer, British rock singer with ‘The Clash’.

22 August 1963 – birth of Tori Amos, American pianist/singer.

21 August 2015

muckspout

noun

– a person who swears too much.

Origin

a 1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) II. 223 *Muck-spout, one who is at once very loquacious and very foul-mouthed.

1916 D. H. Lawrence Let. c 15 Dec. (1962) 492 And Murry..is a little muck-spout. – See more at:

(from findwords.com)

Today’s quote

There is a limit to the application of democratic methods. You can inquire of all the passengers as to what type of car they like to ride in, but it is impossible to question them as to whether to apply the brakes when the train is at full speed and accident threatens.

– Leon Trotsky

On this day

21 August 1940 – death of Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronshtein). Russian Marxist revolutionary, Soviet politician, founder and first leader of the Red Army. Major figure in the Bolshevik victory during the Russian Civil War. After the Russian Revolution Trotsky became the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs. He was opposed to Joseph Stalin. He was expelled from the Communist Party in November 1927 and deported from the Soviet Union in 1929. Trotsky relocated to Mexico where he continued his opposition to Stalin. Trotsky was assassinated by ice-pick wielding Rámon Mercader in Mexico on the orders of Stalin. Trotskyism is a form of Marxism which is based on Trotsky’s ideas and opposed to Stalinism. Born 7 November 1879.

21 August 1970 – birth of Fred Durst, American rock vocalist with Limp Bizkit.

21 August – International Day of Lucid Dreaming. For further information check out this podcast on ABC radio

20 August 2015

druthers

[druhth -erz]

noun, Informal.

1. one’s own way, choice, or preference:
If I had my druthers, I’d dance all night.

Origin of druthers

1870-1875; plural of druther, (I, you, etc.) ‘d rather (contraction of would rather)

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for druthers

Contemporary Examples

Given his druthers he lives on a diet of wine, bread, fish, and olive oil.
Diet Like Jesus: What the Bible Says About How to Eat
Candida Moss
October 14, 2013

Historical Examples

An’ she don’ want to ma’hy him, if dey give her her druthers about hit.
Danny’s Own Story
Don Marquis

Word Origin and History for druthers

n.

1895, from jocular formation based on I’d ruther, American English dialectal form of I’d rather (used by Bret Harte as drathers, 1875).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Slang definitions & phrases for druthers
druthers
noun

Wishes; desires; preferred alternatives : We know your druthers, The Marketplace

Related Terms

have one’s druthers

[1895+; fr a dialect pronunciation of rather or had rather; used by Bret Harte in the form drathers in 1875]

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.

Idioms and Phrases with druthers Expand

druthers

see: have one’s druthers
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Anagram

herd rust
red hurts

Today’s quote

I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you’. Thre is an African saying, which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.

– Maya Angelou

On this day

20 August 1866 – American Civil War formally ends.

20 August 1940 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, states ‘never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few‘, in relation to the Royal Air Force who was repelling German attacks on the United Kingdom in the Battle of Britain.

20 August 1948 – birth of Robert Plant, British rock singer, musician and songwriter. During the 1960’s, Plant sang with a number of bands, including The Crawling King Snakes, Listen, Band of Joy and Hobbstweedle. In 1968, Jimmy Page of successful blues band, The Yardbirds (which had previously featured Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck), convinced Plant to front his new band, The New Yardbirds. Page and Plant began writing songs for the new band, as well as playing some of the Yardbirds classics, such as Dazed and Confused, and For Your Love. Towards the end of 1968, the band was renamed Led Zeppelin. Musicologist Robert Walser stated, ‘Led Zeppelin’s sound was marked by speed and power, unusual rhythmic patterns, contrasting terraced dynamics, singer Robert Plant’s wailing vocals, and guitarist Jimmy Page’s heavily distorted crunch‘. Led Zeppelin has been widely regarded as the forerunner of Heavy Metal.

20 August 1966 – birth of Dimebag Darrell, (born Darrell Lance Abbott), American musician, founding member of Pantera. Dimebag was shot dead on stage on 8 December 2004 while playing for Damageplan.

20 August 1968 – the USSR and a number of other Warsaw Pact nations, invade Czechoslovakia to halt the ‘Prague Spring’ liberalisation reforms being implemented by the Czech leader, Alexander Dubček. This invasion caused a significant rift in support by Communists across the globe and condemnation by many non-Communist nations, leading to a weakening of communism in general and the Soviet Union in particular.

19 August 2015

minatory or minatorial

[min-uh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee]

adjective

1. menacing; threatening.

Origin of minatory

Late Latin
1525-1535; < Late Latin minātōrius, equivalent to Latin minā (rī) to menace + -tōrious -tory1

Related forms

minatorily, adverb

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for minatory

Historical Examples

I had lugged my double-barrel thus far, a futile burden, unless when it served a minatory purpose among the drunken Klalams.
Mount Rainier
Various

Number 3, Lauriston Gardens wore an ill-omened and minatory look.
A Study In Scarlet
Arthur Conan Doyle

And now we know for all time that these countless scolding and minatory voices were not mere angry units, but that they were in.
The German War
Arthur Conan Doyle

Anagram

main troy
my ration
into army
any Timor

Today’s quote

All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

– Blaise Pascal

On this day

19 August 14AD – death of Augustus Caesar, founder of the Roman Empire and first Roman Emperor.

19 August 1662 – death of Blaise Pascal, controversial French mathematician, physicist, inventor and writer. Formulated ‘Pascal’s Triangle’, a tabular presentation for binomial coefficients, challenged Aristotle’s followers who claimed that ‘nature abhors a vacuum’. The computer programming language, ‘Pascal’, is named in his honour.

19 August 1900 – start of the first Olympic cricket match, played in Paris. It is the only Olympics in which cricket was played.

19 August 1919 – Afghanistan Independence Day, in which Afghanistan declared its independence from Britain.

19 August – World Humanitarian Day – a day to recognise those who face danger and adversity in order to help others. 19 August was chosen because it is the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative for Secretary-General to Iraq and 21 of his colleagues. The day seeks to draw attention to humanitarian needs worldwide and the importance of international cooperation in meeting these needs.

18 August 2015

Gadzooks

[gad-zooks]

interjection, Archaic.

1. (used as a mild oath.)

Expand

Also, Odzooks, Odzookers.

Origin of Gadzooks
1645-1655; perhaps representing God’s hooks (i.e., the nails of Christ’s Cross); cf. Gad

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for Gadzooks

Historical Examples

Well, this Mr. Summerfield is a brave Fellow, Gadzooks he is.
The City Bride (1696)
Joseph Harris

Gadzooks, Jenny, will I never get sense or liberality into your head?
The Evil Eye; Or, The Black Spector
William Carleton

The poor fish claps his hand to his forehead and cries ‘ Gadzooks !
The Adventures of Sally
P. G. Wodehouse

Today’s quote

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

– Carl Bard

On this day

18 August – Vietnam Veterans’ Day. The day was originally Long Tan Day, which commemorated the anniversary of the Australian Army’s victory in the Battle of Long Tan during the Vietnam War on this day in 1966. During the battle, 108 Australian and New Zealand soldiers fought against 2,000 North Vietnamese and Viet-Cong troops. Eighteen Australian and New Zealand soldiers were killed and 24 wounded, while there were hundreds of North Vietnamese and Viet-Cong deaths.

18 August 1931 – the flooded Yangtze River, China, peaks in what becomes the worst natural disaster of the 20th century, killing up to 3.7 million people.

18 August 1948 – Australia’s greatest cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman, plays his last game of test cricket. It was played at the Oval in Britain against the English cricket team. Bradman was bowled for a duck, which left him 4 runs short of a career average of 100 runs. Bradman’s first test was in 1928. Over his 20 year test career, he played 52 tests, scored 6,996 runs, with a top score of 334 and an average of 99.94. Throughout his first-grade career, he played 234 games, scored 28,067 runs, with a top score of 452 not out and an average of 95.14.

17 August 2015

rakefire

[reyk fahyuh r]

noun

1. A person who overstays their welcome or stays later than they should.

Origin

Old English. Someone who stayed so late the coals in the fireplace needed raking to keep burning.

Anagram

ire freak
I fake err
a reef irk
friar eek

Today’s quote

The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it.

– Chuck Palahniuk

On this day

17 August 1786 – birth of Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, King of the Wild Frontier.

17 August 1896 – Bridget Driscoll becomes the first car accident fatality after being run over by a Benz car in the grounds of the Crystal Palace, London, England.

17 August 1908 – the world’s first animated cartoon, Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris.

17 August 1970 – Russia launches the Venera 7 spacecraft, which becomes the first man-made object to land on Venus (15 December 1970)

17 August 1980 – Azaria Chamberlain is reported missing at Ayers Rock, Northern Territory. Initially it was claimed that a dingo took her. In 1982, her mother, Lindy Chamberlain was tried for murder. Her husband, Michael, was charged for being an accessory after the fact. After three years in prison, Lindy was released after a piece of the baby’s clothing was found near a dingo’s lair. In 2012, a coroner confirmed the Chamberlain’s version of events that a dingo had taken Azaria.

17 August 1987 – death of Rudolf Hess, prominent Nazi politician who served as Deputy Fuhrer under Adolf Hitler. In 1941, Hess flew solo to Scotland in an effort to negotiate peace after being ignored by Hitler in various plans associated with the war. The flight was not sanctioned by Hitler. Hess was taken prisoner and charged with crimes against peace. He served a life sentence and remained in prison until his death. Born 26 April 1894.

16 August 2015

animadversion

[an-uh-mad-vur-zhuh n, -shuh n]

noun

1. an unfavorable or censorious comment:
to make animadversions on someone’s conduct.
2. the act of criticizing.

Origin of animadversion

Latin

1590-1600; < Latin animadversiōn- (stem of animadversiō) a heeding, censure, equivalent to animadvers (us) (past participle of animadvertere to heed, censure; see animadvert ) + -iōn- -ion

Related forms

animadversional, adjective

Synonyms

1. aspersion, reflection, derogation.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for animadversion

Historical Examples

But Mr. Motley comes in for his share of animadversion in Mr. Davis’s letter.
Memoir of John Lothrop Motley, Complete
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I did not wish to carry with me the animadversion of anybody.
The Seven Cardinal Sins: Envy and Indolence
Eugne Sue

Here churning is a mistake; we are sorry to begin with an animadversion, but the word should be churring.
Society for Pure English, Tract 5
Society for Pure English

Anagram

marinade vinos
radioman vines
dream invasion
divine oarsman
adore minivans
raved insomnia
a mansion drive
some nirvana id
driven in Samoa
or vain maidens

Today’s quote

If you talk with animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you don’t know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.

– Chief Dan George

On this day

16 August 1938 – death of Robert Johnson. American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. Legend has it that Johnson met the devil at a crossroads and sold his soul in return for fame and fortune. One of the first musicians of the 20th century to join the 27 club. Born 8 May 1911.

16 August 1958 – birth of Madonna, American pop star, (born Madonna Louise Ciccone). The Guinness Book of World Records lists her as the biggest selling female recording artist of all time, with over 300 million records sold world-wide.

16 August 1962 – Ringo Starr becomes the new drummer for the Beatles, taking over from Peter Best who was sacked by the band. Ringo went on to fame and fortune, Best became a career public servant for 20 years, before forming the Peter Best Band.

16 August 1975 – Land is returned to Australia’s indigenous people for the first time by an Australian government. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (Australian Labor Party) returned land to Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji people, who are based southwest of Katherine, in the Northern Territory. The land was returned as freehold following years of campaigning that included a strike in 1966 at Wave Hill cattle station.

16 August 1977 – death of Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll.

15 August 2015

petard

[pi-tahrd]

noun

1. an explosive device formerly used in warfare to blow in a door or gate, form a breach in a wall, etc.
2. a kind of firecracker.
3. (initial capital letter). Also called Flying Dustbin. a British spigot mortar of World War II that fired a 40-pound (18 kg) finned bomb, designed to destroy pillboxes and other concrete obstacles.
Idioms
4. hoist by /with one’s own petard, hurt, ruined, or destroyed by the very device or plot one had intended for another.

Origin of petard
1590-1600; < Middle French, equivalent to pet (er) to break wind (derivative of pet < Latin pēditum a breaking wind, orig. neuter of past participle of pēdere to break wind) + -ard -ard

Dictionary.com

Anagram

parted
depart

Today’s quote

The Woodstock dove on the iconic poster is really a catbird. And it was originally perched on a flute.

– Shawn Amos

On this day

15 August 1769 – birth of Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor.

15 August 1945 – Japan announces its surrender to the Allies following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The official ‘Instrument of Surrender’ was signed on 2 September 1945.

15 August 1947 – India Independence Day. At the stroke of midnight (14/15 August), India was partitioned and granted independence from British rule.

15 – 18 August 1969 – the Woodstock Music & Art Fair (or just ‘Woodstock’), a festival of peace and music, was held over three days at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm, 69 kilometres south-west of the town of Woodstock in New York State. It featured artists such as Joan Baez, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie, Mountain, the Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Cosby Stills Nash and Young, Blood Sweat and Tears, Ten Years After. A number of high profile musicians declined to play, including The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Chicago, The Byrds, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Iron Butterfly and Joni Mitchell. Woodstock is still considered to be the ultimate rock and counter-cultural festival. The promoters hoped for 50,000 to attend and were caught unprepared when more than 500,000 people attended.

14 August 2015

finesse

[fi-ness]

noun

1. extreme delicacy or subtlety in action, performance, skill, discrimination, taste, etc.
2. skill in handling a difficult or highly sensitive situation; adroit and artful management:
exceptional diplomatic finesse.
3. a trick, artifice, or stratagem.
4. Bridge, Whist. an attempt to win a trick with a card while holding a higher card not in sequence with it, in the hope that the card or cards between will not be played.
verb (used without object), finessed, finessing.
5. to use finesse or artifice.
6. to make a finesse at cards.
verb (used with object), finessed, finessing.
7. to bring about by finesse or artifice.
8. to avoid; circumvent.
9. to make a finesse with (a card).
10. to force the playing of (a card) by a finesse.

Origin of finesse
Middle French
1400-1450; late Middle English: degree of excellence or purity < Middle French < Vulgar Latin *fīnitia. See fine1, -ice

Synonyms
1, 2. tact, diplomacy, savoir faire, circumspection, sensitivity, sensibility.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for finesse

Contemporary Examples

He was a good wrestler, and, as a soccer player, his lack of finesse got him the position of “enforcer.”
Al Franken’s Reverend Wright
Tom Davis
January 7, 2009

Anagram

sins fee
sense if

Today’s quote

One forgets too easily the difference between a man and his image, and that there is none between the sound of his voice on the screen and in real life.

– Bertolt Brecht

On this day

14 August 1248 – construction begins on the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.

14 August 1880 – construction of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany is finally completed … 632 years after commencement.

14 August 1947 – Pakistan Independence Day. At the stroke of midnight (14/15 August), India was partitioned and the nation of Pakistan created, independent of British and Indian rule.

14 August 1956 – death of Bertolt Brecht, German playwright, writer and theatre practitioner. Born 10 February 1898.

14 August 1963 – Considered to be the founding documents of Australia’s indigenous land rights (native title) movement, the first Bark Petition was presented to the Australian Government’s House of Representatives by Jock Nelson, Member for the Northern Territory on behalf of the Yolngu people of Yirrkala. The second Bark Petition was presented to the House of Representatives by then Opposition Leader, Arthur Calwell. The petitions were ochre paintings on bark and signed by 13 clan leaders of the Yolngu region (Gove peninsula), protesting the Commonwealth Government granting mining rights to Nabalco on Yolngu land . The petitions resulted in a parliamentary inquiry that recommended compensation be paid to the Yolngu people. It was the first recognition of native title in Australia.

13 August 2015

marcel

[mahr-sel]

verb (used with object), marcelled, marcelling.

1. to wave (the hair) by means of special irons, producing the effect of regular, continuous waves (marcel waves)
noun
‘her marcelled hair’.

2. a marcelling.
3. a marcelled condition.

Origin of marcel

1890-1895; named after Marcel Grateau (1852-1936), French hairdresser who originated it

Related forms Expand
marceller, noun
Marcel
[mahr-sel; French mar-sel]
Spell Syllables

Anagram

elm car

Today’s quote

I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure, Jesus Christ.

– Fidel Castro

On this day

13 August 1784 – British Parliament enacts ‘Pitt’s India Act’, which brought the East India company under the control of the British government.

13 August 1899 – birth of Alfred Hitchcock, English movie director and producer. Died 29 April 1980.

13 August 1926 – birth of Fidel Castro, former Cuban President.

13 August 1946 – death of Herbert George ‘H.G.’ Wells, British science fiction writer, author of The War of the Worlds, Time Machine, Island of Dr Moreau, The War of the Worlds. Born 21 September 1866.

13 August 1961 – construction of the Berlin Wall commences.