Cahot and soul soles

Today’s word of the day is cahot, a rare word of French origin, referring to a bank or ridge of snow which has been heaped up across a road by passing sleighs, leaving a corresponding depression behind; hence, a surface-undulation or ridge-like inequality which, with the corresponding depression, is known in the United States as a thank-you-ma’am. Cahot is pronounced /kuh-HOE/ or /kuh-HOO/. John Barlett has more about cahot and thank-you-ma’am in his 1877 Dictionary of Americanisms.

Today’s list of the day is called “all animals are created equal.” It features animals matched with homophones: soul sole, bore boar, aunt ant, and so forth.

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.

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

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.