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30 June, 2025 1 comment
TURVEYDROP - a person obsessed with deportment, often at the expense of anything else [From Prince Turveydrop, the dancing tutor in Dickens' Bleak House] The art of making an entrance is a Turveydrop's principal focus.
23 June, 2025 4 comments
VIDEOKE - karaoke/video fusion popular in the Philippines, where the singer sings a line to the accompaniment of a pre-recorded backing tape [Video/karaoke - 'empty orchestra'] The secret of videoke is choosing a song where the crowd can join you - plus three drinks...
16 June, 2025 3 comments
GHRELIN – known as the 'hunger hormone', ghrelin increases appetite when released from the pituitary gland into the stomach [Partial acronym, combining g(rowth) h(ormone) rel(easing) + in] Open the kibble bag and watch your dog's ghrelin soar.
9 June, 2025 10 comments
MORTO - extremely embarrassed. [Irish slang, abbreviating mortified] When Guinness released a shandy variety, Dubliners were morto.
2 June, 2025 4 comments
COJINILLO (COCK-ah-nill-yo) - sheepskin blanket placed under a horse's saddle [From Spanish for cushion, or saddlebag] Vaqueros use the cojinillo to minimise lesions and abrasions on their 'caballos'.
26 May, 2025 6 comments
FRANKENSHOE - hybrid footwear, typically combining casual sportswear and formal wear [Compound drawn from Frankenstein - or his monster.] The frankenshoe may come with rubber sole and webbed vamp, backed by a leather heel-strap.
19 May, 2025 4 comments
SARDANAPALIAN - decadently luxurious [After the extravagant lifestyle of Assyrian king Sardanapalus, who rules 612-605BC] Contrary evidence suggests a Saradanapalian mindset was either aesthetic/strategic, or hedonistic/excessive.
12 May, 2025 8 comments
DYSANIA - A state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning. [Via Greek, where "dys-" denotes "bad" or "difficult", plus "-ania", linked to "action"] Clinomania - or bed-rot, fostered by one's own cost 'internest' - also connote dysania.
5 May, 2025 4 comments
THREENAGER - wilful, tempestuous toddler [Whimsical portmanteau of three-teenager] Successor of the terrible twos is the tyrannical rule of the threenager.
28 April, 2025 5 comments
KABLOONA - non-Inuit person; foreigner in the Arctic Circle [West Greenland's Inuplaq language, where kablunaet is the brow of a hill, or human] Kabloona is the local label for any outsider, owing to non-Inuit face have more pronounced eyebrows.
21 April, 2025 3 comments
DEGOMBLE - to disencumber (oneself) of snow [Origin uncertain. Slang popular among British Antarctic surveyors and scientists] Step One after stepping off a dog-sled is to degomble your anorak.
14 April, 2025 3 comments
GRIMGRIBBER - trade jargon, espcially opaque legalese [From Richard Steele's 1772 play The Conscious Lovers, where lawyers spout "learned rubbish" over the status of Grimgribber Estate.] Hereunto, appellant and 'nunc pro tunc' are prima facie examples of grimgribber.
7 April, 2025 5 comments
CHUBASCO - violent electrical squall, typically striking the Pacific coast of Central and South America during rainy season [From Spanish ('downpour') via Portuguese chuve ('rain'), linking back to pluvia, or rain in Latin] Peruvian trawlers ensure to be safe in harbour before the chubaso arrives.
31 March, 2025 12 comments
FENT - a leftover scrap of cloth; off-cut; a slit or crack [Via Old French fente, from Latin findere - to cleave, or cut] Adroit tailors can craft a suit with barely a fent remaining.
24 March, 2025 5 comments
PSITHURISM [SITH-uh-rizz-em] - the murmur of rustling leaves as wind passes through trees. [From Greek - psithúrisma, via psithurízō, “I whisper”, where psíthuros means whispering, or slanderous] Winter woodlands are alive with psithurism.
17 March, 2025 3 comments
SKINTLE - to stack bricks with air spaces to allow for ventilation; arrange bricks so that they jut from the wall's surface [Origin unknown] Brick-makers will skintle newly moulded bricks for quicker drying.
10 March, 2025 3 comments
PHILOPENA - nut with a double kernel; old English parlour ritual where the finder of such a nut would offer the spare kernel to another for a kiss or favour. [Origins unclear, but likely a French corruption of Vielliebchen - 'valentine' - in German.] If you miss your chance stealing a 'mistetoe kiss', then try a philopena peck.
3 March, 2025 6 comments
DUNSEL - nautical slang for any part - or crew member - of a vessel that is superfluous or unnecessary; a captain of no authority [Blend of dunnage - scrap material - and -sel, as diminutive.] In 2000, as a surplus crewmate on Leroy Brown, writing a sports feature on the Sydney-Hobart, yours truly was a dunsel.
24 February, 2025 5 comments
NYCTOGRAPH [NICK-to-graff] - rectangular stencil of hollows designed by Lewis Carroll to enable night-writing without a light source [From Greek nyctos - night + graph] To avoid needing a bedside lamp, a nyctograph allows you to notate dreams or mid-sleep brainwaves.
17 February, 2025 9 comments
REMPLISSAGE - padding used in music or writing [From French remplir, to fill up] Good composition, be that musical or lyrical, avoids the line-larding excess of remplissage.
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AC on WoW: Turveydrop
on June 29th, 2025
LA on WoW: Videoke
on June 26th, 2025
BWD on WoW: Videoke
on June 24th, 2025
BWD on WoW: Videoke
on June 23rd, 2025
AC on WoW: Videoke
on June 23rd, 2025