A.W.A.D. - Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

with Anu Garg

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this week we'd be featuring 5000 words. Each of this week's words is accompanied by a wonderful, whimsical illustration by cartoonist Doug Pike (dpike@doubtfulaccounts.com). Besides the word of the day, each cartoon includes many other unusual words. Doug's cartoons have illustrated many magazines and his new book Gone With The Wine has just been released.

smalto
PRONUNCIATION: (SMAHL-to)
MEANING: noun: Colored glass or enamel used in mosaic

ETYMOLOGY: From Italian smalto (enamel, glaze), related to smelt (to melt)

USAGE: "Using Carrara marble, Venetian gold and glass smalto, Elaine M. Goodwin creates mosaics inspired by the Classical, Byzantine, Victorian and contemporary worlds." Going out; Staying in; The Times (London, UK); Jan 14, 2009.

agnosia
PRONUNCIATION: (ag-NO-zhuh)
MEANING: noun: Loss of ability to recognize objects, people, sounds, etc., usually caused by brain injury

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek agnosia (ignorance), from a- (without) + gnosis (knowledge). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know) that is the ancestor of such words as know, can, notorious, notice, connoisseur, recognize, agnostic, diagnosis, ignore, annotate, noble, narrate, anagnorisis (the moment of recognition), and gnomon. Also see prosopagnosia (inability to recognize familiar faces) and alexia (word blindness).

USAGE: "Jeff Koons turns agnosia into an artistic principle. And that has the effect of letting us see our world, and art, as profoundly other than it usually is." Blake Gopnik; Man From Mars Comes in Peace; The Washington Post; Jun 17, 2008.

chouse
PRONUNCIATION: (chous)
MEANING: verb tr.:
1. To cheat or trick
2. To drive or herd in a rough manner

ETYMOLOGY:

For 1: Perhaps from chiaus (the word for an official in the Ottoman Empire), one such official defrauded people

2: Origin unknown

cobber
PRONUNCIATION: (KOB-uhr)
MEANING: noun: A pal

ETYMOLOGY: Cobber is an old-fashioned Australianism. It's perhaps derived from English dialect cob (take a liking to).

USAGE: "Farewell cobber, it's been a blast." Jane Wright; First Word; Sunday Herald (Glasgow, UK); Sep 26, 2004.


rimy
PRONUNCIATION: (RY-mee)
MEANING: adjective: Covered with frost; frostlike.

ETYMOLOGY: From rime (frost), from Old English hrim.

Cartoonist: Doug Pike
routh: abundance

USAGE: "Wild and frozen and mad, nothing but slow-cracking glaciers and phenomenally unfriendly seas and long-broken huts on rimy windswept beaches haunted by the spectres of chill Russian miners." Euan Ferguson; Why Are They Cool? The Observer (London, UK); Apr 23, 2006.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Interesting Aftermath a From Season Five of "MasterChef"

A.W.A.D. - 14-Letter Words, 14-Letter Definitions

An Interesting Wife Swap...