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I wanted to start this topic to promote a hobby of mine namely the colletion of interesting words and their origins (if not always their correct spellings). It sometimes can be a singular joy to find a reallly great word. One that expresses just the right thought. I invite all to join in. Please give the word and any and all definitions if you can. Also please give the origin or earliest known use.

I begin...

T
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I love this word, it describes despicability so well...and it has the onna-matta-peia (sp?) thing going (sounds just like what it means).

e.g. Her egregious behaviors were the talk of the town.

Function: adjective
Text: conspicuously bad or objectionable
Synonyms: capital, flagrant, glaring, gross, rank
Related Words: arrant, outright, stark; infamous, nefarious, notorious; atrocious, deplorable, heinous, monstrous, outrageous, preposterous
Contrasted Words: measly, minor, petty, piddling, slender, slight, trifling, trivial

Thesaurus Symbols
* generally or often considered vulgar
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I like that word as well!!

T

ps. it also sounds very much like my SAT nemisis word

gregarious

Of kinds of animal; tending to live in flocks or loosely organized communities.

b. of a person: inclined to associate with others, fond of company

2. botany- growing in open clusters or in pure associations

3. or of pertaining to a flock or community; characteristic of or affecting people gathered together in a crowd.

[This message was edited by Ted & Di on 05-14-02 at 08:18 AM.]
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Origin uncertain

def:

A. Smart stylish; luxurious; (affecting to be) socially superior; genteel, upper class.

B. Smarten up

C. adv. In a posh manner

note: There is no evidence to support the popular derivation of this word from the initials of 'port outward starbord home' (referring to the more desirable accomidation (ie. avoiding the direct heat of the sun) on ships travelling between England and India.
1. a person wo takes part in a conversation, dialogue or discussion.

b. With posesses.: the person whith whom one is in conversation

2. the middleman of a minstral troupe who questions the endman and acts as a compe're

interlocutress- female interlocutor


compere

1 an elderly man who lavishes gifts on a younger woman

2. a person in a cabaret act, radio or television show, etc. who introduces the performers, comments on the turns, etc.
While reading Michael Wolff's column in New York, I had to look up meretricious.

Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin meretricius, from meretric-, meretrix prostitute, from merEre to earn "”more at MERIT
Date: circa 1626
1 : of or relating to a prostitute : having the nature of prostitution
2 a : tawdrily and falsely attractive b : superficially significant : PRETENTIOUS
synonym see GAUDY
- mer·e·tri·cious·ly adverb
- mer·e·tri·cious·ness noun
* a pubic wig for men and woman

* They used to shave off all the pubic hair as a cure for syphillis, so the well-to-do used wigs.

* Before penicillin was around to ease the lives of the promiscuous, these were used to cover up any sores prostitutes may have obtained in the line of duty.

* They used to treat the syphilitic with mercury, which caused baldness.

* The merkin is for women with no pubic hair. Some people just don't develop hair down there, and this can be embarrassing.

* In days of old a common problem was lice. One of the ways people dealt with this was to shave all the hair off their bodies, including arms, legs, and pubes. Wigs became very popular. Pubic wigs caught on slowly, starting among the kinkier set, but eventually became halfway respectable.

* A merkin is a crotch wig for both men and women and is usually worn on the outside. Have you ever seen a Scot in full regalia? That little
fur "purse" in front is a merkin.

* In a country of mainly dark haired people, a prostitute may wear a blond merkin to be unusual and therefore more desirable. (Got this from a dictionary of sex.)

* One of the more recent uses is to allow exotic dancers to comply with local laws prohibiting full nudity. They wear what amounts to a flesh-colored panty with hair on the front, appearing to the patrons of the establishment to disrobe completely without actually doing so.
saw this one in Ny times sunday


OBSTERPEROUS


Main Entry: ob·strep·er·ous
Pronunciation: &b-'stre-p(&-)r&s, äb-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin obstreperus, from obstrepere to clamor against, from ob- against + strepere to make a noise
Date: circa 1600
1 : marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness : CLAMOROUS
2 : stubbornly resistant to control : UNRULY
synonym see VOCIFEROUS
- ob·strep·er·ous·ly adverb
- ob·strep·er·ous·ness noun


Thanks Bobby, Missed your post Sorry!

[This message was edited by Ted & Di on 11-20-02 at 06:39 PM.]
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Not really a 'clever' word but...

I was just invited to a 'fund raiser' for a boxing organization called FIST. (stands for Fighters .....???)... 'course that word to me now means smth else... 'course i find it a hoot that all these big macho blokes gather for this FIST event....'course only I am getting this joke at this gathering... FIST (guffaw) (childish snigger)... only I am getting this joke.. but they are not... as my grandmother would say (and she was senile) ""ooooo they've taken all our words away...what happened to happy and gay" Ohhh grandma cum to FIST is all in a good cause...
Main Entry: sur·feit
Pronunciation: 's&r-f&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English surfait, from Middle French, from surfaire to overdo, from sur- + faire to do, from Latin facere -- more at DO
Date: 14th century

1 : an overabundant supply : EXCESS
2 : an intemperate or immoderate indulgence in something (as food or drink)
3 : disgust caused by excess

See you tonight!
Di
It's a noun, an adjective, and even an adverb, but I like it best of all as an intransitive verb meaning to dawdle.

"Shilly-shally" came out of my mouth recently, and I hadn't heard it in so long, I wondered if I'd just made it up by making small changes to dillydally--but I looked it up, and it's there.

Also, note that shilly-shally is hypenated, but dillydally is run together, if you believe the people at Webster's.

Shilly-shally kicks dillydally's ass--it sounds indecisive and weak, a fitting connotation. If you tell someone not to shilly-shally, I bet it gets them in motion faster than telling them not to dillydally will.
Main Entry: any·more
Pronunciation: "e-nE-'mOr, -'mor
Function: adverb
Date: 14th century
1 : any longer
2 : at the present time : NOW
usage Although both anymore and any more are found in written use, in the 20th century anymore is the more common styling. Anymore is regularly used in negative , interrogative , and conditional contexts and in certain positive constructions . In many regions of the U.S. the use of anymore in sense 2 is quite common in positive constructions, especially in speech . The positive use appears to have been of Midland origin, but it is now reported to be widespread in all speech areas of the U.S. except New England.
Snatch is more of a London expression whereas "up North" in Liverpool there are some fabulous expressions for a girls 'bits' .... mainly
MINGE or MARY
Always liked to hear my mates ask me is I was out on the town last night "floggin me Mary"... has such a nice refined ring to it... The other great one is if someone is a la Courtney Love (who DID used to live in Liverpool) is... "a dirty minge"....or another word which I like "SLAG" (Check out British comic magazine "The Viz" for the comic strip The Fat Slags.... a classic should be on Oprahs new Classics books club)
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Gorge! I also enjoyed "dirty minge" -- an apt description for a few I know of!

SLAG.
A word my ex-roommate who was Irish from Dublin used to use sometimes. It conjures up images of obese lazy ass good-for-nothing couch potatoes or some repulsive beached whale. The ex-roommate also introduced me to another favorite word: GUTTERSNIPE.

He also used TOE-RAG which I never quite warmed to.
Slag generally means Slut it the most divinely gutteral of senses! Ahh the eloquence of the British tongue... Still my very fave thing of the early 90's was a cartoon in the British "Viz" comic which then came out as a book and video... called The Fat Slags about Northern Birds (like meself!)... going out almost naked at night and stuffed like sausages into size 10s..drinking and cursing and shaggin every bloke in site... the end of the night would be a portion of chips (fries) on the walk home... good Northern joke "How do you tell if a girl from Liverpool has an orgasm? - She drops her chips"

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