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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Interesting Aftermath a From Season Five of "MasterChef"

Image
Do I agree with this? You will have to read it first and decide for yourself. I had long since made up my mind before finding this article. MasterChef Season 5 Fixed: Courtney Lapresi Won Finale After Getting Preferential Treatment – Former Stripper Favoritism BY  STORMY ELIZABETH  ON SEPTEMBER 23, 2014 "They say if you can’t take the heat, you should get out of the kitchen, but what if you like it hot? If you’ve been watching  MasterChef this season 5 , you may have noticed that one contestant in particular seems to  be “winning” challenges  when her dishes don’t seem to be quite up to it.  Courtney Lapresi  has been billed as an “aerial dancer” on the show. So what exactly is that, you ask? It’s a fancy word for stripper. You may term what she does as burlesque, but nekked is nekked and she takes off her  clothes  when she dances, so you have to call them as you see them. Plus is it really fair that she’s up for a MasterChef win aft
Read more

The Longairc-Green Family

This is a family that was on Nanny 911 , the precursor to Supernanny , which airs on Wednesday nights. While Supernanny is a better production and leaves out some of the dopey American-isms of stupidity (such as the opening scene with a much older nanny head whose television showing the family and their issues turns around into a painting on the wall), this show has its value. These families are clueless or don't bother to try and definitely need help. This family is an exception in that the mother couldn't care less what the monsters do and will do anything to mollify them. The father is more consistent and definitely takes a much more disciplinary stance, but the mother undermines it at every step of the way. The two boys are so unbelievably rude, I'd've killed them where they stood. The little girl only wanted a moment of attention and was not doing anything negative, and the mother was awful to her. The nanny, Nanny Stella, spent the first day observing. When she s
Read more

An Interesting Wife Swap...

Image
I'm catching up on our Wife Swap recordings. I'm watching the epiode Burroughs/Padovan-Hickman one that aired on 17 April 2009. The one I watched just before was really quite satisfying - the families both learned a lot and seemed to really take it to heart. This one, however, is back to the familiar mold of putting families that are so totally diametrically opposite families together that they almost can't get along. This is interesting, though, because the Padovan-Hickmans have electricity but don't use it, don't flush often, go for a week without showering and then the whole family uses the same bathwater... I can see where that would be hard, especially for me in that I have very oily skin and hair and would look rather wretched after the next day. But the family themselves are very likable and fun, the father looks more like a kindly grandfather, but really is quite intelligent and pleasant. I would have trouble with the clean thing and I'd miss my iPod
Read more