Half-cocked Obviously not a new word to me, but one I had need of to describe a certain kind of smile. I'm beginning to think I have a weakness for hyphenated words. “Gilbert Nethercut at your service, but please, call me Gil. I’m a long way from London, and like yourself, have the unenviable task of tying up the loose ends of a tragedy. I must reach Moulins with great haste, however, this morning I awoke to bad news. The captain of the Susanna has informed me that our ship is too low in the water and can sail no further down river, lest we run aground on the shoals. Ah, yet all is not lost, Captain Baptiste has graciously allowed me to book passage aboard the Viola, though at an inflated rate if I’m not very much mistaken.” He gave Adeline a playful wink at the captain’s expense, to which the pretty girl returned a half-cocked smile. As if seeing her in a new light, he apprized her from head to toe: the fall of her blonde curls, the slight bump of her bosom, the gentle curve of her hips—the expensive shoes she wore with an ill-fitted dress that had seen better days. “How old are you, my dear?” “Twelve.” Adeline said, feeling his eyes linger on her skirts.
"interstitial" meaning "in-between" or something that doesn't neatly fit into one thing or another. (I was looking for places to submit and one of the words used in the guideline was "interstitial" so when i looked it up on Wikipedia, it gave this definition/scenario: "If a librarian isn't sure where to shelve a book, that may be because the material is interstitial in some way, not fitting comfortably into a single, conventional literary category")
Didn't learn this one today, but "asthenia". Courtesy of a blink-182 song. "Asthenia ( Greek : ἀσθένεια , lit lack of strength but also disease ) is a medical term referring to a condition in which the body lacks or has lost strength either as a whole or in any of its parts. It denotes symptoms of physical weakness and loss of strength . General asthenia occurs in many chronic wasting diseases (such as tuberculosis and cancer), sleep disorders or chronic disorders of the heart, lungs or kidneys, and is probably most marked in diseases of the adrenal gland." Useful for my WIP, along with acedia, anhedonia, anomie, and avolition. Let the research begin.
Asshattery. @The Dapper Hooligan is civilising this poor autistic me with a helmet and a spike. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bqyPhGw7Rak/Tp19-4l05WI/AAAAAAAADcw/Gp4dRY3R9p4/s320/asshead.jpeg
This is not a word I learned today, or even recently, but it is one I would like to share with you all. I hope that's okay. Logorrhea, from Ancient Greek logos "word" and rheo "to flow"; excessive talkativeness. Apparently it's a communication disorder that is sometimes classified as a mental illness. I guess I like it because it evokes the other -rrhea (you know the one) which I think makes it a neat colloquialism for talking just. too. damn. much. all. the. time. No offense intended to anyone actually suffering from this condition, obviously. Of course not.
Maybe it's just me, but this didn't create an image or impression. I have no idea what a "half-cocked smile" looks like or what emotion it's meant to express.
I have no idea, this is the the first I'm hearing Wernicke's, and I generally know dick about medicine, psychology, and all such.
That's the expression I wanted to bring to mind. Another way to put it, a knowing smile. But that it's a 12-year-old girl I didn't want her coming off as worldly or knowing.
toby, from @Mark Burton's story in the Not Happy thread, to mean: 'a water stopcock at the boundary of a street and house section'. No idea when I'd have the chance to use it, though.
The definition doesn't help me lol. And neither does Google Images, which just provides me with copious amounts of Toby pictures from The Office.
Caffeine Crash: When a person is already feeling tired, they have increased levels of adenosine in their brains. If they consume caffeine, the caffeine molecule blocks the adenosine from attaching to its receptors in the brain. However, while the caffeine is keeping a person alert and energetic adenosine is continuing to build up in the person’s brain. After a few hours, as caffeine is metabolized, its effects begin to wear off. The built up adenosine then floods its receptors which signals the body that it is time for sleep, but at a level much more intense than normal. This is the feeling of the caffeine crash.
...He presented a half-cock smile. She smiled half-cocked in the mouth... Half-cocked I smiled ... I am finding it [the half a cock] difficult to place.. 'Shrift' was mentioned on TV - confession, confessional, one or the other as a Roman Catholic and hence the short shrift. ... Not me, I'm not Catholic. Although my wife is baptised Anglican Catholic, hours of fun torturing her bedwise for that sin, heh, marriage: 'You Catholic...' 'I am not Catholic, Anglican Catholic...go check...' 'I did check, it's worse, almost American, almost PRESBYTERIAN.' Then we fall asleep, all fixed by the morning.
Can't recall coming across any new words at the moment, but here's a Latin root from my copy of Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder. "BENE is Latin for 'well'. A benefit is a good result or effect. Something beneficial produces good results or effects. The Latin root can be heard in other languages as well: 'Good!' or 'Fine!' in Spanish is 'Bueno!'; in French it's 'Bon!'; and in Italian, just say 'Bene!'" I also struggled to get the difference straight between beneficiary and benefactor, but I've found a way of remembering. When I think benefactor, I focus on 'factor'. "He was a major factor in our success tonight." That is to say, *action*. So a benefactor is the one giving, while the beneficiary is the one simply receiving.
Never realized that benefit et al. comes from bene, though it's pretty obvious in hindsight. Etymology, what fun!
scofflaw - North American, informal. A person who flouts the law, especially by failing to comply with a law that is difficult to enforce effectively; a person who often breaks the law but in a way that is not very serious (OED)
Literally me. I've only ever seen it used in books written by long-dead English authors. Or sometimes video games that take place in a fantasy setting. But in normal use, I don't think I've ever heard or seen haberdashery.
