1.08.2003

I dig words. I'm not all that picky. I like big ones, little ones, and conjugated ones. I've learned that you can make up words and, if said with an authoratative tone, no one will question you. The assumption is that they just don't know the word.

If you're a word junkie, I suggest joining the Word A Day list. Sign up and they email you a fun word or phrase five days a week...no spam from other sources, just the word a day, the definition, and an example of it being used in liturature, etc.

Recent favorites of mine include
monopsony (muh-NOP-suh-nee) noun
astrobleme (AS-tro-bleem) noun
labanotation (lah-buh-noh-TAY-shun) noun

Not all of them are so highbrow...recently they used the word 'brodie', a word we used in high school to describe spinning a car around on a slick surface. Once I left high school, no one had ever heard of the word so I assumed it was a localism. Then, on October 4, the word of the day:

brodie (BROH-dee) noun
1. A daredevil or suicidal jump.
2. An spectacular failure.
3. A sudden change in a vehicle's direction.

Their example in text:
"The yuppie market is where everybody wants to be because that's where the money is -- or was, up until the Dow Jones did a Brodie."
John R. White, Buick Regal, The Boston Globe, Nov 15, 1987.

Check it out...appear much smarter to your friends! And do a brodie in the parking lot on the way to lunch.

Click here to subscribe to Word a Day

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