flickr adamselwood
Funny signs are my hobby. At a local coffee shop yesterday, I saw a small sign on one of the coffee carafes. Normally, they say bold blend, decaff, vanilla, etc. One of the varieties posts when I went to fill my cup was
Jamacian me crazy. Great way to start the day.
For the local folks, it was a one of my fav places to work and write – DaddyO’s Green Onion. (Thanks to Terry and the crew there.)
flirkr Xurbie
I read many blogs about words. One that I look at consistently is http://tg-editor-proofreader.blogspot.com/ by Tom Gillipspie.
In a recent post, he has a website link for labels for things you didn’t know had a name.
The source is the Merriam-Webster web site.
Lots of fun new labels for you to use to impress your friends. I did know at least one. The aglet that is the piece on the ends of shoelaces.
I love learning new words, don’t you?
Posted in Use the right words
Tagged Merriam-Webster, tg-editor-proofreader, labels for words, philtrum, ferrule, aglet, punt, lunule, tittle, glabella, muntin, lemniscate
flickr lee coursey
Sometimes, but not often, I come across a word I have not heard. One that came up recently is the word natatorium. Do you know what a natatorium is?
A natatorium is swimming pool. It is usually in a separate freestanding building. Like many words, natatorium has its roots in Latin. A cella natatoria was a swimming pool in its own building.
Sometimes the term is also applied to any indoor pool even if not housed in a dedicated building Examples of this would be a pool at a school or a fitness club. Many colleges and universities have natatoria.
I said I never heard of the word but I think there was a natatorium used in many of the past Olympics, I just wasn’t paying attention to the word then.
Posted in Word origins
Tagged natatorium, cella natatoria, another name for swimming pool
Champing at the bit or chomping at the bit? This is one of those phrases that have been distorted over the years. I have been using the wrong one (as I did with anxious vs. eager) for most of my life.The proper way to say it is champing at the bit.
To champ is to do a repetitious, powerful opening and closing of the mouth that produces sounds when the teeth hit together. Also means to show impatience at being held back or delayed.
For the non-horse oriented crowd a bit is a metal piece that is placed in the horse’s mouth and attached to the reins. It helps to control the horse when it is being ridden.
Champ turned into chomp like stamp become stomp, if you know what I mean.
As time goes on chomping at the bit is becoming more widely accepted.
flickr greeblie
Each year, dictionaries add new words. They base these new works on how often they are used over time.
Katina Solomon of www.onlinecollege.org contacted me recently via email. She says she reads www.wordsbybob.com and thought an article onlinecollege published recently on “50 Funniest Pop Culture Sayings That Made it to the Dictionary” might be something I could use.
I agree. The article did have some great, entertaining content. Some of the new words you may be familiar with such as
staycation,
drama queen,
webinar,
brain freeze,
unibrow,
chick flick,
water boarding
and of course unfriend.
Ones that were new to me included
mouse potato (someone who spends too much time on the computer),
blamestorming (collectively blaming someone),
ego surfing (Googling yourself –you know you have before!)
and lookism (discriminating on the basis of appearance).
See all 50 words here: complete list.
