Word of the Day...

[Haunted]

pastiche \pas-TEESH; pahs-\, noun:

1. A work of art that imitates the style of some previous work.
2. A musical, literary, or artistic composition consisting of selections from various works.
3. A hodgepodge; an incongruous combination of different styles and ingredients.


Whoever said the unexamined life is not worth living apparently never intended to go into book publishing, where there is almost no research and where much of the conventional wisdom is a pastiche of folklore, myth and wishful thinking.
-- Edwin McDowell, "Publishing: And They All Said It Wouldn't Sell", New York Times, February 6, 1989

Pastiche comes from Italian pasticcio, "a paste," hence "a hodgepodge, literary or musical," ultimately from Latin pasta, "paste."

[Mary Strickland]

Susurrus OR su-sur-rus, noun. A soft rustling or murmuring sound.

Found this one in a John Connolly novel--never saw it before this week.

[Haunted]

cal·i·brate


1: to ascertain the caliber of (as a thermometer tube)
2: to determine, rectify, or mark the graduations of (as a thermometer tube)
3: to standardize (as a measuring instrument) by determining the deviation from a standard so as to ascertain the proper correction factors
4: to adjust precisely for a particular function
5: to measure precisely ; especially : to measure against a standard


A word we hearing a lot of here in the States lately.

[Patricia A]

Luddite [n. LUH-dite]
The noun Luddite specifically refers to one of a group of early 19th century English workmen who were campaigning against the automation of the power loom. Under cover of night and generally masked, the workers often destroyed the equipment that had displaced them. Today the word broadly refers to anyone who is opposed to technological change or new working methods.

This is a really a killer website I ran across tonight.

http://www.geocities.com/kristenjean77/coolwords.html

I seriously thought Stephen King made that word up.

[jenboxer77]

eurybathic


PRONUNCIATION:
(yoor-uh-BATH-ik)

MEANING:
adjective:: Capable of living in a wide range of depths in water.

This makes me think of Leviathan the movie with that creepy scary underwater creature or maybe 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea or the Abyss, the Lockness Monster, you get the idea!

[jenboxer77]

jackleg • \JACK-leg\ • adjective
1 a : characterized by unscrupulousness, dishonesty, or lack of professional standards* b : lacking skill or training : amateur2 : designed as a temporary expedient : makeshiftExample Sentence:

"Ted Dawson was a pretty good jackleg carpenter." (Stephen King, It)
Did you know?

Don't call someone "jackleg" unless you're prepared for that person to get angry with you. Throughout its more than 150-year-old history in English, "jackleg" has most often been used as a term of contempt and deprecation, particularly in reference to lawyers and preachers. Its form echoes that of the similar "blackleg," an older term for a cheating gambler or a worker opposed to union policies. Etymologists know that "blackleg" appeared over a hundred years before "jackleg," but they don't have any verifiable theories about the origin of either term.

[smooth operator]

aplomb (uh-PLOM) noun - Assurnace of manner or of action; self-assurance, confidence, coolness.

Smooth Operator showed such aplomb when meeting Stephen King that it was if they were old friends, and not strangers.

[Haunted]

el⋅ee⋅mos⋅y⋅nar⋅y  /ˌɛləˈmɒsəˌnɛri, -ˈmɒz-, ˌɛliə-/
[el-uh-mos-uh-ner-ee, -moz-, el-ee-uh-] adjective

1. of or pertaining to alms, charity, or charitable donations; charitable.
2. derived from or provided by charity.
3. dependent on or supported by charity: an eleemosynary educational institution.

[Perse Jr.]

skosh \SKOHSH\ (noun): a small amount; bit, smidgen

Example Sentence: I only like a skosh of lemon in my iced tea.

[Haunted]

sui generis \soo-eye-JEN-ur-us; soo-ee-\, adjective:

Being the only example of its kind; constituting a class of its own; unique.


William Randolph Hearst did not speak often of his father. He preferred to think of himself as sui generis and self-created, which in many ways he was.
-- David Nasaw

Sui generis is from Latin, literally meaning "of its own kind": sui, "of its own" + generis, genitive form of genus, "kind."