[Matsu]

In the spirit of those so called power vocabulary kits designed to make otherwise brain-dead salesmen sound smart, I've decided to start a thread with some vocabulary to improve the intellect of our younger members. Feel free to add your own knowledge of 'philes 'phobias 'isms 'ologies etc etc... But please try to give not only a definition, but also any vignettes or cultural/historical context to assist any eager scholars.

I'll start us off,

Mysophilia. An unnatural attraction to filth. Commonly manifest as a fetish for soiled undergarments, or sexual attraction to excritory fluids. In Japan, perverted businessmen frequenting Adult establishments can purchase the soiled panties of young Asian girls for the express purposes of gratifying these base desires. Incidentally, Japanese women are so preturbed by this phenomenon that a few years ago the Japanese invented disposable underwear that can be washed in cold water, but will disentegrate if they are soaked in hot water.

[TheJoshu]

Deus ex machina!

A person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty

Vignettes? Used originally in Greek drama as a God who comes in at the last minute to decide the final outcome.


As a young person, let me tell you... we've been given a bad name by the news and the type of people who post in this Lounge. And I think all of us can gain a lot from an increased vocabulary. Age isn't relevant.

[ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: TheJoshu ]

[capone]

Electroencephalography-The study of the brain with electrodes

Yes that is a very simplified definition. I didn't want to look it up.

[ 07-12-2001: Message edited by: capone ]

[chris_h]

Originally posted by Matsu:
<STRONG> a fetish for soiled undergarments, or sexual attraction to excritory fluids. </STRONG>

I think we learned a little something about Matsu here today..

only kidding cool thread idea

-chris

[parallax]

Who could get anywhere without:

Arachibutyrophobia - Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.

[AlbertWu]

Originally posted by TheJoshu:
<STRONG>Deus ex machina!

A person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty

Vignettes? Used originally in Greek drama as a God who comes in at the last minute to decide the final outcome.


As a young person, let me tell you... we've been given a bad name by the news and the type of people who post in this Lounge. And I think all of us can gain a lot from an increased vocabulary. Age isn't relevant.

[ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: TheJoshu ]</STRONG>

Deus ex machina, literally "god from machine." God being the aforementioned problem solver, machine being the aparatus that lowers "god" down from "heaven."

[scottiB]

triskaidekaphobia: the word of the date

[Korv]

Originally posted by scottiB:
<STRONG>triskaidekaphobia: the word of the date</STRONG>

What he means is "fear of the number 13, which is today's date."

[HeatMiser]

Here's a couple you shouldn't know; if you do, forget them, fast.

Irregardless (used in place of regardless)
Supposably (used in place of supposedly)

While supposably is a word, it's almost never used properly.

[gwrjr33]

I hate it when friday the thirteenth comes on a friday. (Pogo ruled.)
.
.
.
.
Pas de deux: a dance for two people. More on this later.

[gwrjr33]

Originally posted by Korv:
<STRONG>
What he means is "fear of the number 13, which is today's date." </STRONG>

Not only is today friday the thirteenth but tomrrow is Bastille Day - the national holiday of the cheese eating surrender monkeys.

[maxelson]

Originally posted by TheJoshu:
<STRONG>Deus ex machina!

A person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty

Vignettes? Used originally in Greek drama as a God who comes in at the last minute to decide the final outcome.

[ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: TheJoshu ]</STRONG>

As long as we are on the theatre bent: Verisimilitude: exhibiting the quality of appearing to be true or real.
Personal fave: vomitorium. Just a passageway in a Greek or Roman amphitheatre. That's it. No puking.

[maxelson]

Originally posted by gwrjr33:
<STRONG>

Not only is today friday the thirteenth but tomrrow is Bastille Day - the national holiday of the cheese eating surrender monkeys.</STRONG>

WOW! Damn! There's something behind that, and I wanna know what it is!

[maxelson]

Originally posted by AlbertWu:
<STRONG>


Deus ex machina, literally "god from machine." God being the aforementioned problem solver, machine being the aparatus that lowers "god" down from "heaven."</STRONG>

It is actually literal: the little coupula that housed the flying devices- a set of cogs and ropes (the machine) in an Elizabethan Theater was actually called "The Heavens". Best example of deus ex machina that I can think of is from the ending of Cymbeline- Shakespeare's silliest play.

[gwrjr33]

Originally posted by maxelson:
<STRONG>
WOW! Damn! There's something behind that, and I wanna know what it is!</STRONG>

It's from the Simpsons and is a term Jonah Goldberg has "latched onto". Here's his Bastille Day column. He's perhaps (I say perhaps) a little overboard in his disdain for the French but he cracks me up.

French-Hating Pas de Deux
Another Bastille Day, another Bastille Day Column.

July 13, 2001 3:25 p.m.

Ugh.

Wednesday, I did something stupid. I wrote, "...it might be fun to set up a little challenge for myself. On Friday, I will write about whatever the story is on the upper left-hand corner of the New York Times."

Alas, I didn't take into account several factors. First, I didn't realize that I would be up until 2:00 AM the night before working on my ANWR-opus for NR on DeadTree. Second, I didn't know it would be so nice outside that my dog would hire Abbe Lowell to harass me into taking him back to the park. Third, I didn't know the NRO staff would be splitting early. Fourth, I hadn't thought about the fact that if a vest had sleeves it would be a pretty frumpy-looking jacket. Fifth, how could I have predicted this coffee-soaked paragraph would go on for so long?... All right let's skip ahead: Seventeenth, I couldn't possibly know that the upper-left hand story on the front page of the New York Times would be about a Haitian man, Abner Louima, who was on the receiving end of something that he didn't want to receive in an area not designed for receiving anything, ever. Worse (this is seventeen, part A) that the story would be a dull follow-up on his lawsuit. And, eighteenth, I completely spaced on the fact that tomorrow is Bastille Day and I've promised in the past to have my annual French-bashing column come out before the actual day commemorating the bold lumpenfrenchie seizure of an empty prison and the murder of six unarmed soldiers in the name of Egalit�, Fraternit�, and Fromages � p�te molle Tr�s (Very Soft Cheeses).

So I will attempt what is commonly referred to in France as a pas de deux, or, "movement of two." The phrase is usually reserved for the world of dance, but it is sometimes used when two Parisians are trying escape and surrender at the same time (picture a guy with a goatee running away as he yells "don't shoot! I give up!")....

[finboy]

Originally posted by HeatMiser:
<STRONG>Here's a couple you shouldn't know; if you do, forget them, fast.

Irregardless (used in place of regardless)
Supposably (used in place of supposedly)

While supposably is a word, it's almost never used properly.</STRONG>

Yeah, I always point out "irregardless" as the mark of ignorance to my classes. Similarly, I make sure they know that "different than" is never to be used. Something is, or it is not, always "different FROM" something else.

Strunk & White, "Elements of Style" now in it's bazillionth printing. Worth every cent.

Also, another good book to read is "How to Lie with Statistics" also in it's bazillionth printing, by an author whose name eludes me at the moment. To be found at most reputable book shops.

[ 07-14-2001: Message edited by: finboy ]

[andypolack]

Ok... here we go.... Terms that I'm even not sure of from my CAD course!

A-CAD: Fluid based CAD useing splines.
BRL-CAD: Solid modeling CAD
MGED: Text editor in BRL-CAD
GUI: Believe it or not, the GUI is the Graphical User Interface.

Commands:

rt -s512: ray traces a square block of 512x512
inside: creates a duplicate of a solid and makes it negative, then places it inside the origonal object.
ae 35 25: Command to re-center the screen by azthomuth (I didn't spell that right, did I?) and elevation.
size 28: Fill screen with your currently selected model, (Don't ask why it's 28..... I really don't know)

There are a few others but I'll leave it up to you to find them!... Here, at Dictionary.com

[Joshua]

Two of my favorite words:

Tmesis: the insertion of one word into the middle of another, ala "un-****ing-believable!"

Zeugma: the use of a single verb to create two distinct meanings. Example: To cultivate marriage and fields, or he took my advice and my money.

[Matsu]

Priapism

A prolonged state of erection of 4 or more hours. It is usually unrelated to sexual stimulation, and can be quite painful. I'm not sure if priapismatic or priapastic are the true adjectives. I've never find adjective forms in the dictionary, but you probably need a good medical dictionary. It's often caused by poor circulation. The member in question can become engorged but is unable to drain successfully. That's probably why the retarded kid in grade school (you know, the one with two crutches) always had a giant boner that scared all the girls--and some of the teachers--cause the poor guy had bad circulation. Not 'cause he was a sub-human hormone factory, even if we treated him that way.

[San Acoustic]

Little words pack much more punch, especially when you want to be successful:

Stick 'em up

[BuonRotto]

Here's an absurdly pretentious quote I heard from a former professor at my college:

"It exhibits a horizontal multiplicity of simultaneous spatial interpretations."

Here's another from a different professor (rated PG-13) for context:

"Your building is a lot like masturbation. It works, but it's not very satisfying."

I suggest both approaches in tandem in no particular pattern for maximum ladder-climbing potential.

[BRussell]

Originally posted by HeatMiser:
<STRONG>Irregardless (used in place of regardless)
Supposably (used in place of supposedly)</STRONG>

Along the same lines, here's one I just learned:

If you feel sick to your stomach, you are not nauseous, you are nauseated. Things that make you nauseated, like a boat ride, are nauseous. It's exactly the opposite of how most people use them.

My wife's assho1e doctor felt it necessary to point this out to her when she told him she was sick: "no, you're not nauseous, you're nauseated."

[BuonRotto]

�or if you're my father, (aka, the worst liar in the world) you call work saying that you are experiencing "uh� nausiness!"

--------------

very good word to use: hierarchy. You all know what it means, but it seems to apply to everything and makes you sound like you understand what you're talking about.

them: "blah blah blah blah blah�"

you: "I see, it's hierarchical."

them: "Exactly!"

Sounds stupid. It works.

[l'ignorante]

On topic. What you need to know here (Europe) to make a career is:
(mind you, these are not 'big words' for native speakers, but for the rest of the world it's 'gefundenes Fressen'= found food)
-bilateral
-implementation

Use these a lot in the EU environment and you'll be working for the Commission in no time! Which means, tax free income with a triple average salary.

[MrTomServo]

There's this dumb-ass creative director that works where I do ... and uses the word inculcate a lot. He thinks it means "to apply," as in "we need to inculcate value into this piece." But it really means to "infuse by frequent repetition," or to basically beat someone over the head with a concept. What a dingus.

Also ...

Antidisestablishmentarianism - the document that long ago separated the English church and state.

Defenestrate - to toss out a window. ("I defenestrated the Compaq.")

Masturbatory - shamelessly self-serving, as exemplified by the creative director mentioned above.

Robert

[l'ignorante]

Originally posted by MrTomServo:
<STRONG>
Masturbatory - shamelessly self-serving

</STRONG>

Thanks, I think I can use that.

Off topic: I hang out with some boat-people, they have nice expressions, like " standing on my back" for sleeping.

[spiky_dog]

Originally posted by MrTomServo:
<STRONG>
Defenestrate - to toss out a window. ("I defenestrated the Compaq.")</STRONG>

Or, as in the Defenestration of Prague (1618).

[MrTomServo]

Maybe some of our German friends can help out with this one. I've been told that there's some word in German that means very specifically "to sneak quietly into a girlfriend's room at night using a ladder."

Does anyone know that word?

Robert

[Matsu]

Originally posted by San Acoustic:
<STRONG>Little words pack much more punch, especially when you want to be successful:
</STRONG>

As in, "Bend over!"

Oh, sorry I forgot we're talking business, not the bed room. Maybe medicine then? Whatever, 'Bend Over' won't help you climb the ladder, but once you get to the top, you may use it at will.

[Timo]

[bump]

Around these parts, a useful term indeed is wiseacre. Eh? T

[Daishi]

Originally posted by MrTomServo:
<STRONG>Defenestrate - to toss out a window. ("I defenestrated the Compaq.")</STRONG>

I love that word!


Ahem.

[shanraghan]

excoriate: literally, to 'tear the skin off' of something, less literally, to harshly denounce somone. Never heard it used, but it's a cool word!

[l'ignorante]

Originally posted by MrTomServo:
<STRONG>Maybe some of our German friends can help out with this one. I've been told that there's some word in German that means very specifically "to sneak quietly into a girlfriend's room at night using a ladder."

Does anyone know that word?

Robert</STRONG>

I don't know, but maybe something like:
Schlafzimmernachttreppefreundinschleichen...

but 'ich bin kein Deutscher'

[funkboy]

trombipulation - the state of being infested with chiggers (also trombidiasis)

Also the name of one of the last albums by Parliament.

[Matsu]

renascent

Similar to rebirth. To surge back into life. One could say ressurected, but I prefer an allusion to the Renaissance, for it implies an imaginative/creative vigor.

I know you missed me.

[peso68]

Successful as in how? Sounding like a total dueschebag? Yes, then go ahead and use these words.

Sorry, words that make you sound succesful ...eh.... are more like HOW you say things, not what you say. Big words= not as many people understand you, thus I wouldn't call you successful, just trying to show off.

- Ca$h

[Matsu]

Sarcasm I believe, it literally means (in the greek) to bite or tear the flesh???

For Modern usage: See thread title and read first post.