Tag Archives: gleaming word-a-week

ton-of-fun

I went looking for a word I’ve shared here before. A word I can say when my lips are pursed (it’s been one of those days), when I have that LOOK on my face; when my leg is being pulled or my arm twisted.

Piffle.

For those of you who think this is just nonsense, you couldn’t be more right. Piffle as a noun is trivial nonsense. As a verb it means to talk or act in a trivial, inept, or ineffective way. Piffled and piffling are acceptable variations.

Piffle is not only a word to know and to write, it’s also good to SAY. Put your nose slightly in the air and say it with me. Piffle.

“The chickens are hungry? Piffle! They’ve been scratching in the wheat field all morning.”

When speaking to recalcitrant teenagers one could say, “Stop piffling; the cow will not milk itself.”

Piffle is a ton-of-fun to say and is the reason TVs get turned off and politicians get tuned out.

I encourage you to know your piffle, to call out, Piffle! and share your piffle with me if you’d care to. Let me know what you find to be … piffle!

boustrophedon

While I can’t be sure that boustrophedon wasn’t the ancient equivalent of a modern-day party trick, I can tell you that its style was meant to emulate the pattern of an ox plowing a field, back and forth.

How might you use boustrophedon (boo-struh-FEED-n) in your daily life?

I have no idea.

No, wait, that’s not true …

How about: boost ruh feed ‘n then yer cows’ll be a whole lot better off’n …

Seriously now brown cow, that only helps you remember how to say it.

How about teaching it to a kid—kids get a kick out of writing secret codes to fool their friends.

What’s more, you can say “boustrophedon” while you’re vacuuming the carpet

or mowing the lawn,

and won’t you feel smart ‘n sassy?

Brag if you want to, girlfriend, because now you know a word that most people wouldn’t dare try to define.

photo-of-the-day

photo-of-the-day

photo-of-the-day

photo-of-the-day

eponym

Throughout history, men have managed to tag their names to countless gizmos and gadgets as well as species, medical procedures, landmarks, and doodads, claiming the lion’s share of eponyms for themselves.

An eponym, as you probably guessed, refers to a person after which a particular something is named.

Think Bunsen burner, Douglas fir, Kafkaesque, and, well …

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Okay, fine. I’ll go with kine.

Call me bewildered, bamboozled, and flat-out flummoxed!

Carol sent me a little word quiz this morning that left me scratching my noggin.

She hinted that the answer was one that should come easily to any true-blue farmgirl,

but the fact is …

it had us both hoodwinked.

So, let’s see if you can guess:

What English plural word does not contain any of the same letters as its singular equivalent?

Think on it as you ponder my lush pasture below, and then meander down the page to find the answer.

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Quickly, she acted prickly.

You should have seen her!

She was …

prickly

(but not peevish),

spiky

(yet not exactly sharp),

and thorny

(without a trace of temper).

I’m quite sure she had four tiny paws and a little black nose,

but she was curled up into a bristled ball such that I couldn’t tell one end from the other.

She was positively erinaceous!

Can you guess what she was?

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ninnyhammer

Hammer. Hammer. Hammer.

OUCH! What a ninnyhammer.

No, I don’t mean the actual hammer …

Yowzer! It really hurts!

Sorry—I’m having trouble staying on track.

Where is that ice pack I put in the freezer?

I might as well tell you (you’ve already guessed):

I “nailed” my thumb instead of the nail I was aiming for,

and that makes ME the

ninnyhammer.

Perhaps you’d prefer

ding-a-ling,

featherhead,

goose,

mooncalf,

(yes, I said mooncalf),

nincompoop,

turkey,

yo-yo …

Take your pick.

Any way you slice it

(hammer it?)

it still hurts.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; Michael Jastremski