22 October 2017

a priori

[ey prahy-awr-ahy, -ohr-ahy, ey pree-awr-ee, -ohr-ee, ah pree-awr-ee, -ohr-ee]

adjective

1. from a general law to a particular instance; valid independently of observation.
Compare a posteriori (def 1).
2. existing in the mind prior to and independent of experience, as a faculty or character trait.
Compare a posteriori (def 2).
3. not based on prior study or examination; nonanalytic:
an a priori judgment.

Origin of a priori

1645-1655; < Latin: literally, from the one before. See a-4, prior1

Related forms

apriority [ey-prahy-awr-i-tee, -or-], noun

Can be confused

ad hoc, a posteriori, a priori, ex post facto, prima facie.

Dictionary.com

Anagram

I or pair

Today’s quote

There are three side effects of acid: enhanced long-term memory, decreased short-term memory, and I forget the third.

– Timothy Leary

On this day

22 October 1797 – Andre-Jacques Garnerin becomes the world’s first sky-diver after jumping out of a balloon above Paris.

22 October 1920 – birth of Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author. Leary was a major proponent of the use of pscyhedelic drugs, particularly LSD and psilocybin (mushrooms). He conducted numerous psychiatric experiments using psychedelics, particularly during the 1950s and and 1960s, when the drugs were legal. LSD was banned by the USA in 1966. Leary popularised 1960′s catch-phrases such as ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’, ‘set and setting’, and ‘think for yourself and question authority’. He was friends with beat generation poets, such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Leary was arrested numerous times over his possession and use of drugs. He wrote a number of books on the benefits of psychedelic drugs. Leary became fascinated with computers, declaring that ‘the PC is the LSD of the 1990s’. He encouraged bohemians to ‘turn on, boot up, jack in’. Leary was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995. He chose to stream his dying moments over the internet. Seven grams of Leary’s ashes were placed aboard a Pegasus rocket, launched on 21 April 1997. It remained in orbit around the Earth for six years until it burned up in atmosphere. Died 31 May 1996.

22 October 1934 – Notorious gangster, Pretty Boy Floyd, shot to death by FBI agents in Ohio. Born 3 February 1904.

27 October 2017

bugaloo

[boo g-uh-loo, boo-guh-]

noun, plural bugaloos.

1. a fast dance of Afro-American origin, performed by couples and characterized by dancing apart and moving the body in short, quick movements to the beat of the music.

Origin of bugaloo

of obscure origin – possibly where the word ‘boogie’ originated

Dictionary.com

Slang definitions & phrases for bugaloo

boogaloo

modifier

: That’s really voodoo music, man, boogaloo music
: Go out and have a bugaloo good time

noun

A shuffling, shoulder-swinging dance : feet doing a fast boogaloo in the grass

verb

: They boogalooed down the street
To carry on jocularly; play; tease; fool around

[1960s+; apparently a rhyming form based on boog, like boogerboo]

bugaloo

Related Terms

boogaloo

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

Anagram

a boo lug

Today’s quote

Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.

― Jack Kerouac

On this day

21 October 1492 – Christopher Columbus discovers America.

21 October 1772 – birth of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet. Died 25 July 1834.

21 October 1833 – birth of Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and armaments manufacturer, inventor of dynamite and the Nobel Prizes. Was known as the ‘Merchant of Death’. A newspaper stated that he ‘became rich by finding ways to kill people faster than ever before‘. As a result, he decided to leave a better legacy than that and used his estate to establish and fund the Nobel Prizes, which included the Nobel Peace Prize. Died 10 December 1896.

21 October 1966 – The Aberfan disaster in which the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip in the Welsh village of Aberfan, killed 116 children and 28 adults.

21 October 1967 – Thousands of anti-Vietnam-war protestors attempt to storm the Pentagon.

21 October 1969 – death of Jack Kerouac, American beat-generation writer, ‘On the road‘. Born 12 March 1922.

21 October 2015 – Back to the Future Day. At 4.29pm on 21 October 2015, Doc Emmett Brown and Marty McFly arrived from the year 1955 in a time machine made from a Delorean in the hit 1989 film, Back to the Future 2. Apart from the time machine, the most famous invention featured in the movie was the hoverboard.

20 October 2017

paradiddle

[par-uh-did-l]

noun

1. an exercise or sequence performed typically on the snare drum, marked by four basic beats with alternation of the right hand and left hand on successive strong beats, and begun and ended slowly with a dramatic increase in tempo in the middle.

Origin of paradiddle

1925-1930; staccato syllables partly imitative; cf. diddle2; perhaps with para-1facetiously representing the alternation

Dictionary.com

Anagram

dad lip read
air paddled

Today’s quote

To permit ignorance is to empower it.
Origin
Dan Brown

On this day

20 October 1949 – Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver apply for a patent on their new design for capturing product information: the bar code. Woodland and Silver had been considering this since overhearing a supermarket executive asking the Dean of Engineering at Drexel Institute how to solve the problem of capturing product information automatically at the checkout. While sitting on the beach, Woodland drew out dots and dashes based on Morse code. He then dragged his fingers through the sand to convert them into lines: thin lines for the dots and thick lines for the dashes, thus inventing a two dimensional, linear Morse code which he and Silver then adapted optical sound film technology with. The patent for bar codes was issued on 7 October 1952, almost three years after they applied for it.

20 October 1977 – Plane crash in Mississippi kills 3 members of rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd (Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, along with their Assistant Road Manager (Dean Kilpatrick), the pilot (Walter McCreary and co-pilot (William Gray).

20 October 2011 – death of Muammar Gaddafi, former leader of Libya. He had been shot to death by rebel fighters following the overthrow of his government. Born 7 June 1942.

19 October 2017

ulterior

[uhl-teer-ee-er]

adjective

1. being beyond what is seen or avowed; intentionally kept concealed:
ulterior motives.
2. coming at a subsequent time or stage; future; further:
ulterior action.
3. lying beyond or outside of some specified or understood boundary; more remote:
a suggestion ulterior to the purposes of the present discussion.

Origin of ulterior

1640-1650; Latin: farther, akin to ultrā on the far side; cf. ultra-

Related forms

ulteriorly, adverb

Synonyms

1. hidden, covert, undisclosed, undivulged.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for ulterior

Contemporary Examples

I think a misconception everybody has is that I had an ulterior motive.
Exclusive: Michael Phelps’s Intersex Self-Proclaimed Girlfriend, Taylor Lianne Chandler, Tells All
Aurora Snow
November 26, 2014

While Baldwin is an unconvincing gay rights activist, he seems to have an ulterior motive in writing this article.
How Likable Is Alec Baldwin After His ‘New York Magazine’ Confessional?
Amy Zimmerman
February 26, 2014

Historical Examples

I must now see Don Alonso, and prepare the way for ulterior plans.
Gomez Arias
Joaqun Telesforo de Trueba y Coso

In addition to the list, I left a statement of the ulterior demands.
The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. IX
Various

Anagram

our tiler
riot rule
truer oil

Today’s quote

There is often talk of human rights, but it is also necessary to talk of the rights of humanity. Why should some people walk barefoot, so that others can travel in luxurious cars? Why should some live for thirty-five years, so that others can live for seventy years? Why should some be miserably poor, so that others can be hugely rich? I speak on behalf of the children in the world who do not have a piece of bread. I speak on the behalf of the sick who have no medicine, of those whose rights to life and human dignity have been denied.

– Fidel Castro

On this day

19 October 1924 – Leon Trotsky, one of the founders of the Soviet Union and founder of the Red Army, is thrown out of the Soviet Politburo and his followers persecuted after he opposed Stalin. Trotsky was eventually expelled from the Communist Party and in 1929 was deported from the Soviet Union. He continued his opposition to Stalinism from his base in Mexico.

19 October 1944 – birth of Peter Tosh, Jamaican reggae singer and musician. From 1963 to 1974, Tosh was a member of Bob Marley and Wailers until going solo. His most famous song is ‘Legalize It’, about legalising marijuana. Tosh’s album, ‘Bush Doctor’, included a duet with Mick Jagger in the song, ‘Don’t Look Back’. Tosh was a Rastafarian. He campaigned against apartheid, which he sang about on his album ‘Equal Rights’. Tosh was murdered on 11 September 1987, after three men broke into his house and tortured him in an effort to extort money. After several hours, one of the men shot Tosh in the head, killing him. Two other friends of Tosh’s were also killed.

19 October 2001 – 353 asylum seekers drown when the boat they are on sinks 70km south of Java. The victims included 146 children, 142 women and 65 men. They were travelling from Indonesia to Australia and were predominantly Iraqi. Australian authorities labelled the boat SIEV-X (SIEV is short for ‘Suspected Illegal Entry Vehicle’). The incident became a major political issue and coupled with other incidents, such as the ‘Tampa crisis’ and the ‘Children Overboard affair’, resulted in major changes to Australia’s migration laws, including excising 4,600 islands from Australia’s migration zone and introduction of the controversial ‘Pacific Solution’.

18 October 2017

transept

[tran-sept]

noun, Architecture.

1. any major transverse part of the body of a church, usually crossing the nave, at right angles, at the entrance to the choir.
2. An arm of this, on either side of the central aisle of a church.

Origin of transept

Anglo-Latin

1530-1540 From the Anglo-Latin word trānseptum, dating back to 1530-40. See trans-, septum

Related forms

transeptal, adjective
transeptally, adverb

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for transept

Historical Examples

However, it was these portions of the transept and the apse which had the least suffered.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola

Next, Pierre turned into the transept on the left, where stand the confessionals.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola

There is an attractive window in this transept, the gift of Edward IV.
England, Picturesque and Descriptive
Joel Cook

Only the chancel with its flanking chapels and the transept have been built.
Portuguese Architecture
Walter Crum Watson

Its total length is about 265 feet with a transept of about 109 feet long.
Portuguese Architecture
Walter Crum Watson

The dimensions of the transept are 40 feet by 34 feet, and 58 feet in height.
Bell’s Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury
H. J. L. J. Mass

The other is in the north wall of the transept, and opens into the choir vestry.
Bell’s Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury
H. J. L. J. Mass

The choir is nearly of the same kind of architecture as the transept.
The New Guide to Peterborough Cathedral
George S. Phillips

On the eastern side of this transept is St. Paul’s Chapel, now used as a vestry.
Exeter
Sidney Heath

It is of five lights, and occupies the entire breadth of the transept.
Bell’s Cathedrals: Southwark Cathedral
George Worley

Anagram

patterns
rant pets
rap tents
spent rat

Today’s quote

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.

– Reba McEntire

On this day

18 October – Anti-slavery day, created by an act of the U.K. Parliament in 2010. It defines modern day slavery as child trafficking, forced labour, domestic servitude and trafficking for sexual exploitation. It provides an opportunity to draw attention to the subject and to pressure government, local authorities, public institutions and private and public companies to address the scale and scope of human trafficking.

18 October 1776 – the ‘cocktail’ is invented when a customer requests a drink decorated with a bird-tail, in a New York bar.

18 October 1867 – Formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States. Every year, 18 October is celebrated as Alaska Day.

18 October 1926 – birth of Chuck Berry, legendary American musician and pioneer of rock and roll and famous for songs such as ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ and ‘Johnny B. Goode’. Died 18 March 2017.

18 October 1931 – death of Thomas Edison, U.S. inventor. Born 11 February 1847.

17 October 2017

whiffenpoof

noun

1. an imaginary or indefinite animal; e.g. “the great-horned whiffenpoof;”
“Whiffenpoof” has been used as a joking fictitious name for a member of the upper crust; a 1922 Philadelphia newspaper columnist writes of an opera performance attended by “Mrs. T. Whiffenpoof Oscarbilt, Mr. and Mrs. Dudbadubb Dodo and [their] three dashing daughters who have just finished a term at Mrs. Pettiduck’s School for Incorrigibles at Woodfern-by-the-Sea.”

2. a device used for tracking exercises;
“Whiffenpoof” is also a more obscure name for a tracking device used in the 1940s and 50’s. It is a large, cylinder-shaped log that has several dozen nails driven all the way around the sides of it, sticking out approximately two inches. There are also railroad spikes driven into the ends of the log, which create an effective way to carry it.
For the exercises, a rope would be tied around the log, and it would be dragged throughout various woodlands, creating a trail of sorts. The trackers would then attempt to follow the markings, and eventually locate the Whiffenpoof. They would bring it back as proof that they had successfully tracked it

3. the Whiffenpoof Fish that forms the subject of a piece of comic dialogue in Victor Herbert’s 1908 operetta, Little Nemo;

One reviewer of the 1908 operetta gave a paragraph of praise to the comic hunting tales presented in a scene in which three hunters are trying to outdo each other with hunting stories about the “montimanjack,” the “peninsula,” and the “whiffenpoof.” He calls it “one of the funniest yarns ever spun” and compares it favorably to Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark.[6]
One source indicates that the dialogue in fact began as an ad lib by actor Joseph Cawthorn, covering for some kind of backstage problem during a performance.
The Word is also referred in one of the Little Nemo comic strips published in 1909 (April 11). After being held down by nine policemen during a hysteria crisis, Nemo’s father tells the doctor: “Just keep those whiffenpoofs away. Will you?”.

4. The Whiffenpoofs, the Yale University singing group, founded in 1909 and named after the imaginary beast in the operetta;

5. a stereotypic Yale alumnus or Ivy Leaguer

– Wikipedia

Example

I look like a whiffenpoof.
Origin
Dan Brown

Anagram

whine off fop
phew off info

Today’s quote

Whoever drinks beer, he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long, does not sin; whoever does not sin, enters Heaven! Thus, let us drink beer!

― Martin Luther

On this day

17 October 1814 – London Beer Flood causes the deaths of 8 people. The flood occurred when a vat containing 610,000 litres (135,000 gallons) of beer ruptured, causing other vats in the building to also rupture, resulting in a total of 1,470,000 litres (323,000 gallons) to flood nearby streets, destroying two homes and the wall of a pub. Those killed were living in the basement of houses which filled with the beer. The brewery was sued, however, the court ruled the event an ‘Act of God’.

17 October 1901 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt issues an Executive Order changing name of the ‘Executive Mansion’ to the ‘White House’.

17 October 1938 – birth of U.S. daredevil, Evel Knievel (Robert Craig Knievel). Knievel was best known for his failed attempt to jump over the Grand Canyon on a rocket-propelled motor-bike. He also successfully, and often unsuccessfully, attempted long distance motor-bike jumps, such as jumping 14 buses. Through his career, Knievel broke 35 bones. Died 30 November 2007.

17 October 1989 – Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

17 October 2010 – Mary McKillop is canonised by Pope Benedict XVI, becoming Australia’s first saint.

17 October 2011 – Richard Branson, of Virgin Group, opens the world’s first commercial space-port, which he has based in Mexico. Although there have been a number of sub-space test flights, to date there have been no commercial space flights.

16 October 2017

sprite or spright

[sprahyt]

noun

1. an elf, fairy, or goblin.

Origin of sprite

Middle English, Old French, Latin

1250-1300; Middle English sprit < Old French esprit < Latin spīritus spirit

Related forms

spritehood, noun
spriteless, adjective
spritelike, adjective

Can be confused

spirit, sprite.

Synonyms

See fairy.
Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for sprite

Contemporary Examples

Prince may have pranced around like a carefree libertine onstage, but in rehearsal he was more drill sergeant than sprite.
Speed Read: The Juiciest Bits From the History of ‘Purple Rain’
Jennie Yabroff
January 1, 2015

They can be ingested sporadically or used as a mixer throughout the night (though a can of sprite seems to be the latest trick).
History’s Craziest Hangover Cures
Justin Jones
December 30, 2014

Many of the ones around today are more like the sprite Generation but there are still some old school left in La Eme.
The Mexican Mafia Is the Daddy of All Street Gangs
Seth Ferranti
December 11, 2014

I tried beer in high school, before discovering Zima, a sweet and bubbly malt-liquor/wine-cooler hybrid that tasted like sprite.
Wine Snobs, There’s a Beer for You
Jordan Salcito
April 5, 2014

Bottles of Gatorade, Coke, and sprite and cans of beer lay crushed on the sidewalk.
Oklahoma Tornado Levels Moore 7-Eleven; Heroes Emerge to Save Injured
Christine Pelisek
May 22, 2013

Historical Examples
She is more futile than a sprite beseems; but she is distinctly ‘nice.’
Sir Walter Scott
George Saintsbury

This was the question for which the sprite had stopped the moth.
The Adventures of Maya the Bee
Waldemar Bonsels

All of her sprite, her mind, forlorn, were evermore hanging.
The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus
Caius Valerius Catullus

Jeanne sped on like a sprite, drawing her cap over her face.
A Little Girl in Old Detroit
Amanda Minnie Douglas

Rose is as tall as I and has a prettier face and dances like a sprite.
A Little Girl in Old Detroit
Amanda Minnie Douglas

Anagram

priest
stripe
ripest
esprit

Today’s quote

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.

– Oscar Wilde

On this day

16 October – Dictionary Day (in the U.S.A), coinciding with the birth of Noah Webster (born 1758), creator of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language and known as the ‘Father of American Scholarship and Education’.

16 October 1834 – London’s House of Lords and House of Commons damaged by fire caused by an over-heating chimney flue during the destruction of tally sticks.

16 October 1854 – birth of Oscar Wilde, Irish writer and poet. Wilde wrote a number of plays, poems and epigrams. His only novel was ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. His plays included ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’, and ‘Salome’. In addition to English, he was fluent in German and French. In 1895, Wilde was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ which related to some of his homosexual relationships. He received the maximum sentence of two years hard labour. On his release from prison in 1897, Wilde moved to Paris, living in exile and poverty. He died on 30 November 1900 from cerebral meningitis. He was buried at Cimetière de Bagneux, but in 1909 his remains were transferred to Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

16 October 1962 – start of the Cuban Missile Crisis, known in Cuba as the October Crisis and in Russia as Kарибский кризис (Caribbean Crisis), one of the major events of the Cold War as it brought the world to the brink of nuclear conflict. It started when a USAF U-2 plane photographed evidence of Soviet air bases being constructed in Cuba on 14 October 1962. The U.S. considered bombing the bases, but ended up blockading Cuba, preventing Soviet weapons being delivered. Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev wrote to U.S. President John F. Kennedy, stating the blockade constituted an act of war. For 13 days, the Americans and Soviets conducted talks to resolve the crisis. On 28 October 1962, Kennedy and UN Secretary General U. Thant reached a public and secret agreement with Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets agreed to dismantle their weapons in Cuba, while the U.S. gave an agreement to never invade Cuba. Secretly, the U.S. agreed to dismantle its ballistic missiles in Turkey.

15 October 2017

lampoon

[lam-poon]

noun

1. a sharp, often virulent satire directed against an individual or institution; a work of literature, art, or the like, ridiculing severely the character or behavior of a person, society, etc.
verb (used with object)
2. to mock or ridicule in a lampoon:
to lampoon important leaders in the government.

Origin of lampoon

French

1635-1645; < French lampon, said to be noun use of lampons let us guzzle (from a drinking song), imperative of lamper, akin to laper to lap up < Germanic; see lap3

Related forms

lampooner, lampoonist, noun
lampoonery, noun
unlampooned, adjective

Synonyms

1. See satire.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for lampoon

Contemporary Examples

I read that you went to Harvard and wrote for the lampoon there, but how did you break into professional comedy?
The Unheralded Comedy Genius: Nicholas Stoller on ‘Neighbors,’ Zac Efron’s ‘Darkness,’ and Diddy
Marlow Stern
May 8, 2014

His first day back at the lampoon, he showed a copy of it to Beard.
Doug Kenney: The Odd Comic Genius Behind ‘Animal House’ and National Lampoon
Robert Sam Anson
March 1, 2014

“He didn’t respect his talent,” says Michael Gross, the former lampoon art director, who saw him frequently in California.
Doug Kenney: The Odd Comic Genius Behind ‘Animal House’ and National Lampoon
Robert Sam Anson
March 1, 2014

Anagram

moon lap
loan mop

Today’s quote

I was not content at home. . . I wanted to live like a colorful butterfly in the sun.

– Mata Hari

On this day

15 October 1917 – death of Mata Hari, (born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), Dutch dancer, courtesan and spy. She was charged with espionage and executed by firing squad in France, after being accused of spying for Germany during World War I. Born 7 August 1876.