Author Archives: Grant Barrett

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Synesis and Garden State places

Today’s word of the day is synesis. The dictionary definition is “a construction in which a form, such as a pronoun, differs in number but agrees in meaning with the word governing it.” A typical example is when the subject and verb don’t agree, as in “There were a large number of people waiting.” To most people, that sounds better than “there is a large number of people waiting,” even though “number” is ostensibly the subject which should be paired with the “was” form of the copula.

Today’s list of the day is “funny place names in the Garden State.” Cheesequake, New Jersey, is a helluva town.

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Raglan and nick-nacks

Today’s word of the day is raglan, an adjective describing a sleeve that extends in one piece to the neckline of a garment, with slanted seams from the armhole to the neck. See the picture below. The word comes from Fitzroy James Henry Somerset (1788-1855), First Baron Raglan and a British field marshal, who wore coats with similar sleeves. He was, by coincidence, at one time the commanding officer of the man for whom cardigan is named.

Today’s list of the day is “nick-nacks,” a collection of two-word compounds or reduplications that are fun to say, such as pow-wow, teeny-weeny, boo-hoo, and flim-flam.

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Picture by Allerina & Glen MacLarty under a Creative Commons license

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Anent and awesome pronunciations

Today’s word of the day is anent, a preposition meaning “regarding” or “concerning.” It’s largely literary or show-offish. As in, “This question remains a vital consideration anent the debate over the possibility of limiting nuclear war to military objectives.”

Today’s list of the day is “awesome pronunciations,” where Wordies and Wordniks have gone out of their way to record unusual words and things like foreign-language tongue-twisters.

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Georgic down on the farm

Today’s word of the day is georgic, relating to agriculture or rural life. In thanks to farmers and farming, we also have things found down on the farm as our list of the day, as well as these additional words of the day.

tilth: cultivation of land; tillage; tilled land.

hopperdozer: an old-fashioned device for killing locusts with tar and kerosene among the crops.

boon-work: work or service freely given to a farmer by his neighbors on some special occasion.

granger: in the upper American Midwest, a farmer.

boss-cockie: in Australia, a farmer whose holding is large enough to require laborers to help work it.

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Photo by Josef Stuefer and used here under a Creative Commons license.

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Wrick and -imm-

Today’s word of the day is wrick, which means “to twist or turn” or “a sprain.” A synonym is rick and both are probably related to crick, as in, “There’s a crick in my back. Will you walk on my back for a spell?”

Today’s list of the day is imm, which contains nothing more than words with the letters “imm” somewhere in them: swimming, immodest, gimmick, and more.

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Haruspex and sweet tooth fairy

Today’s word of the day is haruspex, which was a priest in ancient Rome who practiced divination by the inspection of the entrails of animals. It’s sometimes used in a literary fashion to refer to any person who tries to predict the future.

Today’s list of the day is Sweet Tooth Fairy, which contains three-part phrases made of two different compound words, so “sweet tooth” and “tooth fairy” combine to form “sweet tooth fairy.” It’s a great road game, too.