Word of the Day...

[JohnDalglish]

The word was popularized by the early comic "The Katzenjammer Kids."

Hi,

Right, I'd always thought it was just a made-up name.

Every day's a schoolday right enough!

Thankee for that, Haunted.

Long days and pleasant nights

[Haunted]

sockdolager \sok-DOL-uh-jer\, noun:

1. A decisive reply, argument.
2. Something unusually large, heavy, etc.
3. A heavy, finishing blow.

WHACK! - bum! bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum - and the thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away, and quit - and then RIP comes another flash and another sockdolager.
-- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

"Your first day awake with us was some sockdolager," Andy said. "You handled them sharps slick as grease."
-- Darryl Brock, If I Never Get Back

Sockdolager is an odd American combination from the 1830s. Its probable components are sock, as in "striking a blow," and doxology, "a fervent hymn to god." Sockdolager is also possibly the last word Abraham Lincoln heard before he was assassinated.

[blunthead]

desultory (des′əl tôr′ē) adjective, marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose

There was another period of desultory, almost aimless conversation.

[Srbo]

Aspirin (USAN),

also known as acetylsalicylic acid (pronounced /əˌsɛtəlˌsælɨˈsɪlɨk/ ə-SET-əl-sal-i-SIL-ik, abbreviated ASA), is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication.

I have one unbelievable headache going on, I`m almost at the point of throwing up.

[Spideyman]

World English Dictionary
accountable

— adj
1. responsible to someone or for some action; answerable

[JohnDalglish]

Aspirin (USAN),

also known as acetylsalicylic acid (pronounced /əˌsɛtəlˌsælɨˈsɪlɨk/ ə-SET-əl-sal-i-SIL-ik, abbreviated ASA), is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication.

I have one unbelievable headache going on, I`m almost at the point of throwing up.

Hi,

Ah.

Astin.

Hope you feel better soon, Srbo.

Long days and pleasant nights

[Haunted]

autoschediastical \aw-toh-SKEE-dee-az-tik-uhl\, adjective:

Something improvised or extemporized.

Come, that's all I have to say, for if people don't take an interest in things, I shall not eliminate sesquipedilianisms in an autoschediastical fashion to amuse them.
-- Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Punch, Volumes 62-63, 1872

Then Marmaduke looked back at the boat, and I gave a fiendish laugh, that floated over the waters of the canal, striking the auricular nerves of the boat driver, who was trying to impress upon the mind of his mule the necessity of being more autoschediastical if they wished to win the race.
-- The Lafayette Weekly, Volumes 8-9, 1882

Autoschediastical enters English from the Greek by way of the German autoschediázein, "to extemporize."

[blunthead]

draggling (drag′əl-ing) intransitive verb, hanging down and being pulled along

The refrigerator door shuddered back and forth in the rising wind, the letters painted there beginning to drip and run now, taking on the draggling ominous look of a horror-movie poster.

[Haunted]

mansuetude \MAN-swi-tood\, noun:

Mildness; gentleness.

For indeed, it is possible to attain a state of divine mansuetude that nothing dismays and nothing surprises, just as one in love might, after many years, arrive at a sublime tranquillity of the sentiments, sure of their force and durability, through constant experience of their pleasures and pains.
-- Honoré de Balzac, Jordan Stump, Adam Gopnik, The Wrong Side of Paris

You are safe, dear old man, you are safe, temporarily, in the mansuetude of our care, Julie said.
-- Donald Barthelme, Donald Antrim, The dead father

Mansuetude derives from the Latin mansuescere, literally "to tame by the hand."

[bobledrew]

Onychophagia -- the medical term for biting of one's fingernails.