Unstinting

The Word of the Day for October 27 is "unstinting."

unstinting: (adjective) Bestowed liberally.

Synonyms: lavish, munificent, overgenerous, too-generous, unsparing.

Usage: Her suitor's unstinting devotion was flattering yet slightly unsettling.

Relevance to my life: Tired of the unstinting criticism from him, I closed myself off and shut him out. Perhaps things might have turned out differently with more frequent kind words from him and more patient understanding from me. We'll never know, though.

The judges' unstinting praise of Robert Muraine at his audition seemed sincere, although one was also unstinting with a donkey-bray laugh.





Feel free to show your unstinting admiration for me in other ways.


Something wet...





Something small...





Something funny...





Something sweet...





Something perfect...




I also accept:





Relax, people... I'm kidding, although if you could get me Viggo's phone number, that would be swell.

Sanguineous

The Word of the Day for October 25 is "sanguineous."

sanguineous: (adjective)  Relating to or involving blood or bloodshed.

Synonyms: butcherly, gory, slaughterous

Usage: He was an angry youth with a sanguineous temperament and was always getting into fights.

Relevance to my life: The OB nurse's eyes fixed in shock on the sheets of my hospital bed, made sanguineous by the mixed blood from me and my child which poured out of my body in a rush of amniotic fluid, cold evidence that she had been negligent in dismissing my fears that something had gone horribly wrong with my labor.

This is straight from the Davinci Code:

The Sanguineous Sekhmet Saga

People never seem to get tired of their spooky cults, do they?

If you like a story about secret societies,  the sinister occult and conspiracy theories, then another good read is the "thinking person's Davinci Code:" Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.

Ideate

The Word of the Day for October 24 is "ideate."

ideate: (verb)

1. transitive  To form an idea of; imagine or conceive.
2. intransitive  To conceive mental images; think.

Synonyms: conceive of, envisage, imagine

Usage: Such characters represent a grotesquely blown-up aspect of an ideal man... if not realizable, capable of being ideated.

Relevance to my life: I will admit unashamedly that I went through a time where I wistfully wished for revenge: long nights I'd spend in bed while my feverish brain ideated scenarios in which I came out victorious.

Ok, that was ideate used as a transitive verb, which means that it takes a direct object, in that case, "scenarios." It can also be an intransitive verb, which means that it can stand without a noun phrase following it, like:

Fixed upon revenge, I ideated well into the night, imagining complex scenarios where those who'd done me wrong would come to rue the day that they'd wished me ill.

At first glance I did not like this word at all. It sounded to me to be either a product of "corporate-speak" (as in "The committee meets bi-weekly to ideate new visions for the workplace") or a slangy back-formation of a verb from a noun, like conversate from conversation, interpretate from interpretation, and orientate from orientation. A note: we generally consider orientate  to be an error in American English although I believe it is acceptable Standard British English.

Now while formation of new words is the hallmark of a vital living language system, for the purposes of formal language, it seems wasteful to have two verbs so close in form having the same meaning, like converse/conversate, interpret/interpretate, or orient/orientate. It's not only wasteful, but it seems to be clumsy and inelegant. I think I have a thing about elegance in language, and actually, some slang and curses hold a kind of elegance in their inventiveness.

Ok, my own issues aside, I felt compelled to look into this word a bit more. According to Merriam-Webster online, ideate goes back to 1610, so it's not quite the same as a modern-day slang term like conversate, which makes me shudder every time I hear it.

You know what? I still don't really like the word ideate. I think I have to say it to myself one hundred times today and see if that changes anything. If not, no worry. English is rich in synonyms. I'll stick to envisage, conceive, imagine.

See? Corporate-speak.

Countervail

The Word of the Day for October 23 is "countervail."

countervail: (verb) Oppose and mitigate the effects of by contrary actions.

Synonyms: counteract, counterbalance, neutralize

Usage: I hope that my letter of apology will countervail the foolish actions of my colleagues.

Relevance to my life: The most effective way I found to countervail the idiotic words of ignorant assholes and regain a sense of equilibrium was to vent to a friend for a while. Thank God he had on his flame retardant long underwear.

Dance CounterBalance

I thought that the music was lame, but the dance itself was amazing with their balance and counterbalancing moves.
I also like Momix and Pilobolus.

Redoubtable

The Word of the Day for October 22 is "redoubtable."

redoubtable: (adjective)

1. Arousing fear or awe.
2. Worthy of respect or honor.

Synonyms: formidable, unnerving

Usage: On his comely head he set his helmet, well-wrought, with a crest of horse-hair that nodded menacingly above it, and he grasped a redoubtable spear that suited his hands.

Relevance to my life: He criticised me for my redoubtable defense of sharp sarcasm and a wounding tongue; yet all the while his mouth dripped blood from the brutal barbs lobbed my way.

What it is NOT: doubtful -
It's redoubtable whether or not I'll be able to make the drive to see you; my car is in the shop. wrong

Ok, today's video clip deals not with the word "redoubtable" itself, but the synonym "formidable."

This is a false cognate of a French word,  formidable, which means "terrific" in French and it reminds me of one of my favorite Fawlty Towers moments when Basil says, "Formidable" to a Frenchwoman. The way he says it always makes me laugh.






I have the entire Fawlty Towers collection on dvd. The best episode ever is The Germans; second is Basil the Rat.

Sundry

The Word of the Day for October 21 is "sundry."

sundry: (adjective) Consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds.

Synonyms: assorted, miscellaneous, mixed, motley

Usage: Walking-sticks, canes, baseball bats, and sundry other items stood in the umbrella stand next to the front door, but I could not find a single umbrella!

Relevance to my life: The food processor, crock pot, pie plates, rolling pin, and other sundry kitchen gadgets lying around my kitchen are proof that I am still elbow-deep in my cooking and baking phase.

or:

The sundry attacks directed at me for a fairly innocuous comment of mine shocked me with their presumptive arrogance, faulty logic and an undercurrent of sexist double standards.


What it is NOT: a kind of tomato - that adjectival form is sun-dried, as in sun-dried tomatoes.


You may see this word most often in the phrase "various and sundry," which, a good style manual will tell you, is a cliché, and not appropriate for formal writing.

I'm in a bit of a shitty mood, feeling hateful towards the random assortment of assholes out there, so here's the Asshole anthem:






Ok, I can't help but laugh whenever I hear Denis.

I know, I know, you unflappable types out there are saying, "Non illegitimati carbonundum," right?

If only I could brush them off that easily. I suppose it's time to practice the fine art of detachment. Again.

Dumbstruck

The Word of the Day for October 20 is "dumbstruck."

dumbstruck: (adjective) So shocked or astonished as to be rendered spechlesss.

Synonyms: dumbfounded, dumbstricken, flabbergasted, stupefied, thunderstruck

Usage: He stood dumbstruck in the doorway as the partygoers yelled "Surprise!" in unison.

Relevance to my life: His comment: "You know, you're a damn fine-looking woman now, but do you know how drop-dead you'd be with a little plastic surgery?" left me uncharacteristically dumbstruck, and wondering if all men are born without that filter between the brain and the mouth or if it's just the ones who are interested in me.

What it is NOT: "hit with the stupid stick" or any other derivation of dumb meaning unintelligent, although I like the image of being hit with the stupid stuck.

I was stricken dumb by these video clips this morning only because I was laughing too hard to breathe and was therefore unable to speak:









I can't see office clips without dragging out the next two:





"It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care."