Word of the day

[BeautifulSunshine]

Our kevinchess1 is master of malapropism.

[Richard Frost]

impudent Word of the day from Bing
[ˈɪmpjʊd(ə)nt]
ADJECTIVE
not showing due respect for another person; impertinent.
"he could have strangled this impudent upstart"
synonyms:
impertinent · insolent · cheeky · audacious · brazen · shameless · immodest · pert · presumptuous · forward · disrespectful · insubordinate · irreverent · flippant · bumptious · brash · bold · bold as brass · rude · impolite · ill-mannered · bad-mannered · unmannerly · discourteous · insulting · ill-bred · fresh · cocky · brass-necked · saucy · lippy · mouthy · flip · sassy · nervy · malapert · contumelious
antonyms:
polite · respectful
Origin
late Middle English (in the sense ‘immodest, indelicate’): from Latinimpudent-, from in-‘not’ + pudent-‘ashamed, modest’ (from pudere‘be ashamed’).

[Richard Frost]

Word of the Day : May 19, 2020 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

disabuse
verb diss-uh-BYOOZ

Definition
: to free from error, misconception, or fallacy

Did You Know?
We know the verb abuse as a word meaning "to misuse," "to mistreat," or "to revile." But when disabuse first appeared in the early 17th century, there was a sense of abuse, now obsolete, that meant "to deceive." Sir Francis Bacon used that sense, for example, when he wrote in 1605, "You are much abused if you think your virtue can withstand the King's power." The prefix dis- has the sense of undoing the effect of a verb, so it's not surprising that disabuse means "to undeceive." English speakers didn't come up with the idea of joining dis- to abuse all on their own, however. It was the French who first appended their prefix dés- to their verb abuser. English disabuse is modeled after French désabuser.

Examples
"While it's difficult to predict how the practice of hiring will evolve over time, one thing is clear: it is extremely difficult to disabuse people of their biases, especially when those biases become cultural norms." — Mark Travers, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2020

"[Anton] Chekhov has a way of disabusing us of our specialness, of making us realize that our problems are, in fact, just like everyone else's." — Megan O’Grady, The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2020

[Richard Frost]

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020 - https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/
eftsoons
[ eft-soonz ]
adverb

Archaic.

soon after.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF EFTSOONS?
For some of us, our first (and only) encounter with eftsoons is in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), line 12, to be exact (if you get that far): “Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!” Eftsoons his hand dropt he.” Eftsoons (also eftsoon), a very rare word, is a compound of the archaic adverb eft “again, a second time” and the adverb soon, expanded by the adverbial genitive -s (as in backwards and forwards). Eftsoons entered English before 1000.

HOW IS EFTSOONS USED?
Eftsoons he made known his wants to the churl behind the desk, who was named Gogyryan. And thus he spake: “Any rooms?”

ROBERT BENCHLEY, "SUPPRESSING 'JURGEN,'" LOVE CONQUERS ALL, 1922

I am of this mind with Homer, that as the snail that crept out of her shell was turned eftsoons into a toad, and thereby was forced to make a stool to sit on disdaining her own house, so the traveller that straggleth from his own country is in short time transformed into so monstrous a shape that he is fain to alter his mansion with his manners, and to live where he can, not where he would.

JOHN LYLY, EUPHES AND HIS ENGLAND, 1580, EDITED BY LEAH SCRAGG, 2003

[Richard Frost]

Word of the day - Throes - https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dicti ... ish/throes

throes
(θroʊz )
1. PLURAL NOUN
If someone is experiencing something very unpleasant or emotionally painful, you can say that they are in the throes of it, especially when it is in its final stages.
[formal]
...when the country was going through the final throes of civil war. [+ of]
...the agonising throes of transition.
2. See in the throes of
3. See also death throes

[Richard Frost]

poignant - from Bing
[ˈpɔɪnjənt]
ADJECTIVE
evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret.
"a poignant reminder of the passing of time"
synonyms:
touching · moving · sad · saddening · affecting · pitiful · piteous · pitiable · pathetic · sorrowful · mournful · tearful · wretched · miserable · bitter · painful · distressing · disturbing · heart-rending · heartbreaking · tear-jerking · plaintive · upsetting · tragic
archaic
sharp or pungent in taste or smell.
"the poignant scent of her powder"

[Richard Frost]

kelpie
in British English
or kelpy (ˈkɛlpɪ )
NOUN
Word forms: plural -pies
an Australian breed of sheepdog, originally developed from Scottish collies, having a smooth coat of various colours and erect ears
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Word origin
named after a particular specimen of the breed, c. 1870

kelpie
in British English
(ˈkɛlpɪ )
NOUN
(in Scottish folklore) a water spirit in the form of a horse that drowns its riders
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Word origin
C18: probably related to Scottish Gaelic cailpeach heifer, of obscure origin

[Richard Frost]

Word of the day - Bing

ameliorate
[əˈmiːlɪəreɪt]
VERB
formal
make (something bad or unsatisfactory) better.
"the reform did much to ameliorate living standards"
synonyms:
make better · better · upgrade · refine · enhance · boost · build on · help · raise · revamp · brush up · polish up · perk up · tweak · give a facelift to · meliorate

[Chadwick]

Perhaps I could offer up Susie Dent again. She seems to have her finger on the pulse.

A mumpsimus is someone who refuses to budge/insists that they are right, despite clear evidence that they are wrong

[Richard Frost]

Word of the Day : May 26, 2020 - https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

homonymous

adjective hoh-MAH-nuh-mus

Definition
1 : ambiguous

2 : having the same designation

3 : of, relating to, or being homonyms

Did You Know?
The "ambiguous" sense of homonymous refers mainly to words that have two or more meanings. Logicians and scientists who wanted to refer to (or complain about) such equivocal words chose a name for them based on Latin and Greek, from Greek hom- ("same") and onyma ("name"). In time, English speakers came up with another sense of homonymous referring to two things having the same name (Hawaii, the state, and Hawaii, the island, for example). Next came the use of homonymous to refer to homonyms, such as see and sea. There's also a zoological sense. Sheep and goats whose right horn spirals to the right and left horn spirals to the left are said to be homonymous.

Examples
"The Chelyabinsk meteorite became a media celebrity after the videos of its explosion in mid-air, occurring in February 2013 near the homonymous city, went viral on social networks." — Luca Maltagliati, Nature, 17 Feb. 2017

"Like the bird homonymous with his name, 'Cro' operates like he's under the cover of night. Though Cromartie's numerically best game came against Tulane this fall, in which the senior recorded six tackles and a sack, Downing tabbed South Florida and Connecticut as the raider's brightest." — Katherine Fominykh, The Capital Gazette (Annapolis, Maryland), 12 Dec. 2019