Hmm, strange. Google tells me that "absquatulate" is a humorous North American term, but Merriam-Webster tells me that it can be used seriously, e.g. "a frontiersman preparing to absquatulate and head for the wilderness" or as slang for "abscond", e.g. "the cashier absquatulated with the funds". Regardless, I wouldn't use the words "evacuate with comic haste", since "evacuate" is a very polite term for "emptying one's bowels". Of course, it can mean other things too. But whenever there's a fire drill, and the PA says "EVACUATE NOW!", I can't help but half-snigger and half-cough.
You caught me. I used evacuate for purposes of double entendre. A most interesting word. I saw a definition somewhere that said it was a portmanteau of abscond, squattle, and perambulate.
Seedy (or gone to seed). I mean, it isn't exactly an unfamiliar term, but I figured out what it really means. I was walking past a yard where the lawn hadn't been mowed for so long it looked like a wheat field, literally tall stalks with seed heads on top. An untended lawn will quite literally go to seed. Some years back I also realized the strangeness of the name CD Warehouse (a store that used to sell CDs, not sure if they still exist or not). If you hear someone say it but have never seen it written, it sounds like 'seedy warehouse.'
And then the wind blows the seeds into the normal people's yards, infecting them with all sorts of bullshit weeds. Special room in hell....
That got me thinking about the similar phrase "Gone to pot." My assumption was that it refers to meat or food that's about to go bad so you make a stew with all of it thrown together. A sort of hobo stew, as I used to hear it called. Looked it up, and that is one meaning, but it's disputed—it could also mean that an animal that dies goes into a pot to be cooked up, which has a more sinister undertone to it. Source
Tracklements, courtesy of fellow-member @Rath Darkblade. It means condiments, or accompaniments to food. Fun stuff.
Yep! Tracklements (a British noun) specifically means "a savoury jelly, pickle, or condiment served with cheese or cold meat" (e.g. "the five cheeses arrived on a platter accompanied not only by the wine and a basket of fresh bread but various tracklements"). Thank you, google. I looked up more details, and came across this on Oxford reference.com:
Syncretism - in religion, the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths. This is a very old idea; the Romans did it after they conquered the Greeks in the mid-200s BC. It's probably even older than that. Syncretism also exists in linguistics and politics.
Pebbling – sharing memes and videos with friends, so-called in honour of penguins gifting loved ones with pebbles.
Machicolation - in medieval castles, a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. Machicolations are one reason that scaling ladders quickly went out of fashion as ways to storm a castle. (Related) Murder Holes - a hole in the ceiling of a gateway or passageway in a fortification, usually between the two portcullises in a gatehouse. If attackers manage to overcome the first portcullis and make it into the gatehouse, the second one is locked in place. Then, the defenders use the murder hole to shoot, throw or pour harmful substances or objects such as rocks, arrows, scalding water, hot sand, quicklime, or boiling oil, down on attackers. (Note: boiling oil was rarely used because of its cost. Boiling water or sand were cheaper).
Repechage : a trial heat (as in rowing) in which first-round losers are given another chance to qualify for the semifinals Courtesy of the Olympics, which I havent really been watching.
Since that word is originally from French, I wonder how many ultra-nationalists it would piss off. (And how much they would deserve it). "Speek Ingleesh, gol-durn-it!"
Sounds like something I try to do after work - just wait in the park for a while, pat the dogs, listen to the wind in the trees, etc.
Cenosillicaphobia - The Fear of an empty beer glass. I don't know if this is an accepted medical term or in a dictionary but if you google it you will see it is an actual word being used by brewery's and internet people. I learned it by meme on Facebook tonight.
I sometimes look at the New York Times word of the day. Most of the time, the word is familiar, but I came across the word "haptic" that I hadn't heard before. It means relating or proceeding to a sense of touch. Haptic technology, for example, uses vibration, touch and force to make human interaction seem more personal.
Yes there are new haptic systems for gamers like body suits are the most expensive or you can buy a shirt or belt and it makes your body feel vibrations like when playing a shooting game your whole body vibrates when firing a machine gun instead of just the controller it looks neat their new I've never used one.
Like I said I've never used one of these haptics suits but I would wager that Call of Duty is the best game for their use.
Any kind of vibration or whatnot in gaming controllers is considered a form of haptic feedback. Way back to the rumble pack, even. It just tends to be more subtle nowadays, to the point where people don't seem to think about it too much, but it's heavily used in all sorts of games played with controllers.
Hibiscuses I always thought the word Hibiscus was a non-countable noun. I have 7 hibiscus and not 7 hibiscuses. We live to learn!
putsch - noun A sudden attempt by a group to overthrow a government. A coup; an illegal effort to forcibly overthrow the current government. A sudden and decisive change of government illegally or by force
Yep! The most best-known example is the Beer Hall Putsch, the famous (or should that be infamous?) attempt by Hitler to seize power in the early 1920s. After the initial surprise, he and his followers were seized and jailed. During that period, he wrote (or -- more accurately -- dictated to Rudolf Hess, his deputy) the work that made his name: Mein Kampf.
