31 December 2015

adoxography

noun

– fine writing in praise of trivial or base subjects;

Examples

– Elizabethan schoolboys were taught adoxography, the art of eruditely praising worthless things

– adoxography is particularly useful to lawyers

Anagram

parody hag ox

Today’s quote

A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame someone else.

– John Burroughs

On this day

31 December – the seventh day of the 12 days of Christmas (Western Christianity).

31 December 1948 – birth of Disco star, Donna Summer. Died 17 May 2012.

31 December 1967 – Evel Knievel unsuccessfully attempts a motorcycle jump over the fountains of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. He received concussion and numerous broken bones, which left him in a coma for 29 days.

31 December 2007 – Murder statistics in the United States reveal that murder rate is 0.055 per head of population, which is slightly less than it was in 1947, when the rate was 0.0551. The population in 1947 was 145,000,000 and there were 8,000 murders. In 2007, the population was 300,000,000 and there were 16,500 murders.

30 December 2015

shicer

[shahy-ser]

noun, Australian.

1. Slang. a swindler.
2. any unscrupulous person.

Origin of shicer

German
1850-1855; German Scheisser, equivalent to scheiss (en) to shit + -er -er1

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for shicer

Historical Examples

A ‘ shicer ‘ is first a mining claim which turns out to be useless, and then anything that does so.
Town Life in Australia
R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny

‘I think the practical miner, who had been hard at work night and day, for the last four or six months, and, after all, had just bottomed a shicer, objected to the tax itself, because he could not possibly afford to pay it’.
The Eureka Stockade
Raffaelo Carboni
1927

Anagram

riches

Today’s quote

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

– Aristotle

On this day

30 December – the sixth day of the 12 days of Christmas (Western Christianity).

30 December 1922 – Lenin establishes the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

30 December 1945 – birth of Davy Jones, singer with British 1960’s rock band, The Monkees. Died 29 February 2012.

30 December 2006 – Former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, hanged after being found guilty of committing crimes against humanity.

29 December 2015

Vandemonian

[van-dih-mohn-ee-en]

noun

1. a native or inhabitant of the former Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania)
adjective
2. of or relating to Van Diemen’s Land or its inhabitants

Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Examples from the Web for vandemonian

Historical Examples

The husband was about forty years old; and was a vulgar looking wretch—even for a “ vandemonian.”
Lost Lenore
Charles Beach

Anagram

a manned vino
dove in manna
neon maid van

Today’s quote

Treat all men alike…. give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. Let me be a free man…free to travel… free to stop…free to work…free to choose my own teachers…free to follow the religion of my Fathers…free to think and talk and act for myself.

– Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

On this day

29 December – the fifth day of the 12 days of Christmas (Western Christianity).

29 December 1890 – Massacre at Wounded Knee. The last battle of the American Indian Wars was fought at Wounded Knee Creek, on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian reservation, South Dakota. The US 7th Cavalry Regiment opened fire on the Reservation, massacring around 300 people, including 200 women and children, and wounding 51. Twenty-five US soldiers died, most from friendly fire.

29 December 1998 – Six people die in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race as huge waves swamp the vessels during the 1167km race.

29 December 1998 – Former Khmer Rouge leaders apologise for the Pol Pot led genocide in Kampuchea (now known as Cambodia), which killed 1 million people between 1975 and 1979.

24 December 2015

xenobombulate

[zen-uh-bom-yuh-leyt]

verb

– to malinger

Example

The airman was known to xenobombulate whenever required for a military exercise.

Anagram

baboon telex um
exult bean boom

Today’s quote

Have the maturity to know sometimes silence is more powerful than having the last word.

– Thema Davis

On this day

24 December 1865 – Ku Klux Klan formed by a group of confederate veterans who are opposed to civil rights for African-Americans.

24 December 1979 – The Soviet Army, comprised of 100,000 troops, invades Afghanistan in response to Afghan insurgents (armed by the United States) who had been attacking Soviet troops. The occupation lasts for 10 years and results in the deaths of between 600,000 and 2,000,000 Afghan civilians, as well as 6,000,000 refugees who fled to Pakistan and Iran. The Soviets withdrew in 1989. The cost of the Afghan occupation is a significant factor that led to the economic collapse of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet occupation, the United States funded Afghan resistance in the form of the Mujahideen and other militant Islamic groups, out of whom emerged Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The real victims in this war were the Afghan people, who continue to suffer and to comprise a significant portion of global refugee numbers because of the involvement of the USSR and the USA during this period.

23 December 2015

witzelsucht

[vit-zuhl-sookht]

noun

– a psychological disease that causes sufferers to speak in puns, usually at the most inopportune or inappropriate time (also known as ‘the joking disease’).

– a joke that falls flat.

Origin

German

witzeln meaning to joke or wisecrack, and sucht, meaning addiction or yearning

Anagram

scuttle whiz

Today’s quote

It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. Its appeal is to the material part, and if allowed its way, it will in time disturb one’s spiritual balance. Therefore, children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.

– Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman), Wahpeton Santee Sioux

On this day

23 December 1947 – Bell demonstrates the world’s first transistor radio.

23 December 1972 – 16 survivors of a plane-crash in the Andes, Argentina are rescued. The plane had crashed on 13 October 1972, carrying 45 people. A number of passengers were killed in the crash and some died later from exposure to the cold. Eight died in an avalanche. The survivors lived on chocolate bars, cabin food and the bodies of those who had died.

23 December 1982 – Israeli Consulate in Sydney and Hakoah Club in Bondi, Australia, bombings – both bombings were undertaken by the same three suspects. Two people were injured in the Israeli Consulate bombing and no injuries were recorded in the Hakoah bombing.

23 December 2005 – an earthquake in South-East Asia kills approximately 87,000 people, followed by a chemical spill that poisons China’s Songhue River, contaminating the water supply of millions of people.

23 December 2013 – death of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet Union hero, inventor of the world’s most popular assault weapon, the AK-47, or ‘Kalashnikov’. The AK-47 stood for Kalashnikov Assault, 1947, the year it was designed. He was awarded the ‘Hero of Russia’ medal as well as Lenin and Stalin prizes. Kalashnikov invented the AK-47 to protect the national borders of the Soviet Union. The AK-47 has a simple design, which makes it very reliable and easy to replicate. Kalashnikov hadn’t patented the design internationally. As a result, of the estimated 100 million AK-47s in the world today, it is believed that at least half are copies. Although his weapon has been favoured by armies and guerillas across the globe, Kalashnikov claimed he never lost sleep over the numbers of people killed by it. He always maintained that he invented it to protect the ‘Fatherland’s borders’. He did however, rue the use of it by child soldiers. Kalashnikov was a World War II veteran who was wounded in 1941. While recovering in hospital he conceived the design. Born 10 November 1919.

22 December 2015

ventripotent

[ven-trip-oh-tuhnt]

Adjective

(comparative more ventripotent, superlative most ventripotent)

1. Having a big belly.

Examples

1694, Thomas Urquhart, translating François Rabelais, Pantagruel, Book LIX, (chapter title):
Of the ridiculous statue Manduce; and how, and what the Gastrolaters sacrifice to their ventripotent god.

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 714:
The reception committee consisted of Constance and a ventripotent Swiss banker, representing the Red Cross […].

2. Gluttonous.

2008, A. C. Kemp, The Perfect Insult for Every Occasion, ISBN 978-1-59869-327-0, page 198:
I’m sure your being so ventripotent is useful in county fair competitions, George, but it’s driving our bakery into the ground, so we’re replacing you.

Anagram

invent potter
penitent or TV

Today’s quote

When it comes to money, everyone is of the same religion.

– Voltaire

On this day

22 December 1880 – death of Mary Ann Evans. One of England’s greatest novelists, she published under the name ‘George Eliot’ in order to be taken seriously. Some of her novels include ‘Adam Bede’, ‘Mill on the Floss’, ‘Silas Marner’, and ‘Daniel Deronda’. Her novel, ‘Middlemarch’, was described as the greatest novel in the English language. Born 22 November 1819.

22 December 1936 – Italy sends thousands of troops to Spain to support the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War who were opposed to the democratically elected left-wing ‘Popular Front’ government which comprised of Trotskyists, communists and other left-wing groups.

22 December 1949 – birth of Maurice Gibb on the Isle of Man. Founded the Bee Gees with his brothers, Robin and Barry. Died 12 January 2003 in Miami, Florida.

22 December 1989 – The Brandenburg Gate opens for the first time in almost 30 years, allowing access between East and West Germany.

21 December 2015

ultracrepidarian

[uhl-truh-krep-i-dair-ee-uh n]

adjective

1. noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise:
The play provides a classic, simplistic portrayal of an ultracrepidarian mother-in-law.

noun

2. an ultracrepidarian person.

Origin of ultracrepidarian

Latin, Greek

1800-1820; ultra- + Latin crepidam ‘sole of a shoe, sandal’ (< Greek krepis ‘shoe’); in allusion to the words of Pliny the Elder ne supra crepidam sutor judicare ‘let the cobbler not judge above the sandal’; cf. the English proverb “let the cobbler stick to his last”

Related forms

ultracrepidarianism, noun

Dictionary.com

Anagram

a particular diner
a radical pier runt

Today’s quote

No change in musical style will survive unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style. Rock is to dress up to.

– Frank Zappa

On this day

21 December 1913 – American newspaper, New York World, publishes the world’s first crossword puzzle. It was created by English journalist, Arthur Wynne.

21 December 1940 – birth of Frank Zappa, American revolutionary musician. Died 3 December 1993.

21 December 1991 – representatives of all Soviet Republics, except Georgia, signed the Alma-Ata Protocol which confirmed the Belavezha Accords of 8 December 1991 that declared the Soviet Union dissolved.

21 December 2012 – end of the world as predicted by the Ancient Mayans … or is it just the end of an age within their calendar? All was revealed … and it was a non-event …