Word of the Day...

**Neesy** · December 27th, 2012

Originally Posted by blunthead

The adrenal medulla is more tender, though.

MMMM - is that supposed to make me hungry? That is too weird to be thinking of brains at the same time as wanting something to eat.

I thought if I had had a girl rather than two boys I would have named her "Medulla Oblangata"

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**blunthead** · December 28th, 2012

res (ˈrās, ˈrēz) noun, a particular thing

But legally, it was just an object--a res, as the lawyers say--with no blame held against it. We couldn't very well hold the Buick for theft of services, could we?

**blunthead** · January 2nd, 2013

baleful (-fəl) adjective, foreboding or threatening evil

His gaze as he stood beside the wall of pegged hammers, clippers, rakes, shovels, and one posthole digger (the red AA on the handle stood not for Alcoholics Anonymous but for Arky Arkanian) was angry. Almost baleful.

**blunthead** · January 3rd, 2013

cyclotron (sī′klō trän′, -klə-) noun, a circular particle accelerator for positively charged ions (usually protons, deuterons, and alpha particles), normally used to initiate nuclear transformations upon collision with a suitable target: through the combined action of a constant magnetic field with an oscillating electrostatic field across two -shaped, hollow electrodes, it causes a particle to move in an increasingly large spiral path inside the electrodes with increasing kinetic energy and velocity

A wavering tendril of light, like a spark from a gigantic cyclotron, shot outward and upward from the Buick's rear passenger window.

**Sundrop** · January 3rd, 2013

hypocrite noun \ˈhi-pə-ˌkrit\

1: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue
2: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings
3: A person who holds other people to higher standards than he holds himself.

My friend is a hypocrite. She condemns others for rude bahavior, especially during holiday shopping, but has no problem with being rude herself.

**Haunted** · January 4th, 2013

couthie \KOO-thee\, adjective:

Agreeable; genial; kindly.

Occasionally he'd stab one of the buttons, never managing to stop the machines' couthie chatter of grunts and whistles.
-- James Meek, The Heart Broke In

… That her coming away from home was no small loss to England, not but that England, as we all knew, had many ladies, yet could not have many so couthie, and kind, and willing to help, as Mrs. Doctor More.
-- William Tait, "The Roads Through the World," Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 24

Couthie stems from the Old English word cūth, originally meaning "to know." It arose in the 1700s in Scotland in the sense of "agreeable."

**blunthead** · January 4th, 2013

dragoon (drə go̵̅o̅n′) transitive verb, to force (someone) into doing something; coerce

Your father dragooned me into one of his experiments once--got me to run the video camera.

**blunthead** · January 7th, 2013

gloaming (glōm′iŋ) noun, evening dusk; twilight

He sounded almost angry, a pissed-off bandleader in the gloaming.

**Neesy** · January 7th, 2013

Originally Posted by Haunted

couthie \KOO-thee\, adjective:

Agreeable; genial; kindly.

Occasionally he'd stab one of the buttons, never managing to stop the machines' couthie chatter of grunts and whistles.
-- James Meek, The Heart Broke In

… That her coming away from home was no small loss to England, not but that England, as we all knew, had many ladies, yet could not have many so couthie, and kind, and willing to help, as Mrs. Doctor More.
-- William Tait, "The Roads Through the World," Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 24

Couthie stems from the Old English word cūth, originally meaning "to know." It arose in the 1700s in Scotland in the sense of "agreeable."

I guess that is where we get the word "couth" then? As in uncouth? Actually perhaps there is no such word as couth but (here we go again with the military flashbacks) when officers were sent on career courses we often said He/she was sent on a "couth course" as slang.