Apparently a "dingbat" not only refers to a stupid person--like Archie always called Edith--but also the little censor characters subbed into profanity? I'll be fuc*ed!
Somnolence: "Sleepiness describes a state of impaired wakefulness in which an individual experiences a need or desire to sleep." What a pretty word. I learned it while researching insomnia.
I'm not sure, but I think the expression is "to void one's bowels" (e.g. I voided my bowels, etc.) From what I understand, it's a very polite (and somewhat old-fashioned) way to express the idea. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I was recently reminded of this word - I have encountered it before, but I never bothered to look up the actual definition. nacre: a jewel or gemstone
Not exactly - it's used in the context of voiding (emptying) one's guts or bladder. People sometimes just omit the thing that they're voiding. It can also be used to indicate vomiting (i.e. voiding the contents of one's stomach).
I wonder how reliable dictionary.com is then. There it said verb (without object) to defecate or urinate. What dictionary do you all prefer?
The definition I'm seeing is specific to mother of pearl. The adjective "nacreous" is kind of nice. Having a pearlescent (specific) appearance or lustrous rainbow colors (generic). Regarding the generic rainbow-like definition, you can also side with opalescent or iridescent. That's a pretty good example of specific vs generic applications, where both pearlescent and opalescent can both generically refer to milky rainbow colors, but specifically one refers to a pearl while the other refers to an opal. I can't say I would recognize the difference in real life, but both words sound cool and can pinch-hit for each other depending on what the rest of the words around them are doing.
the word makes me think of "nechro--" and "knacker" dead and tired..... rather than pearlescent and iridescent
Yeah, I was thinking sort of the same. For some reason I pictured somebody shitting their pants. Like they nacred their knickers. No lustrous rainbow colors there.
The obvious rejoinder would be that it depends on if you've eaten a whole bunch of Skittles first ... but let's not go there. Disturbing mental image. It does something else to the rainbow.
palimpsest - a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain. something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form. (Apparently, Richard Dawkins used the word to refer to the genetic makeup of humans in his new book “The Genetic Book of the Dead”) Darwin and Dawkins: a tale of two biologists
One of my favorites. I have to include it at least once in everything I write. Actually, it's one of those words that's probably best to only use once to avoid affectation. It can flow both literal (physical writing) and metaphorical.
#$@%&$!!! The sound that comes from your throat unbidden, when dealing with traffic, and the other drivers have been doubling their normal dosage of stupid pills.
The cars you encounter in traffic are like a microcosm of society at large, eh? Some are courteous, some are not. I regularly get on the highway to get to the larger city next to my small town. On the on ramp, I'd say it's pretty equally split between people who speed up and don't let you in and people who slow down or move over and let you in. The nice people make up for the jerks.
I wasn't going to use the same quote as I did in the quote thread, but I will because it's so appropriate: Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? (George Carlin)
Carlin had a fantastic ability to look at the world and see the absurd in it. Though his QUOTE needs a modern update. "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, on a cell phone"
I haven't noticed too much of that, but there is a big fine if you are caught driving with your cell phone in your hand - $615
