Today’s word of the day is methinks, an archaic or humorous way of saying, “it seems to me,” as in King Lear, Act IV, scene VI: “Methinks thy voice is alter’d and thou speak’st/In better phrase and matter than thou didst.”
Category Archives: Word of the Day
A word of the day each weekday from Wordnik!
Greatcoat
Today’s word of the day is greatcoat, a heavy outer garment you wear outside of all of your other clothes. It is approximately the same thing as an overcoat (which can be of any weight) or a topcoat (which is lightweight) and related to a surcoat (which is loose).
In 1842 Penny Magazine of London quoted this description of a certain kind of greatcoat in Ireland in 1581:
With jackets long and large,
Which shroud simplicity:
Though spiteful darts which they do bear
Import iniquity.
Their skirts be very strange,
Not reaching past the thigh;
With plaits on plaits they plaited are,
As thick as plaits may lie.
Whose sleeves hang trailing down
Almost unto the shoe;
And with a mantle commonly
The Irish kerne do go.
Now some amongst the rest
Do use another weed:
A coat, I mean, of strange device,
Which fancy first did breed.
His skirts be very short,
With plaits set thick about.
Dumbassery
Today’s word of the day is dumbassery, which is stupid or foolish behavior. It’s less amusing than tomfoolery, more innocent than chicanery, and more likely to be congenital than botchery.
Nontroversy
Today’s word of the day is nontroversy, an event or occurrence that is seen as controversial by some people but not by others. It’s primarily colloquial or slang (thus the abundant uses in social messaging) and is used mainly by those who believe something that is being called a scandal or an outrage is really a non-issue. It’s formed from non- plus (c)ontroversy
Vigesimal
Today’s word of the day is vigesimal. It means twentieth, occurring in intervals of 20, or based on or relating to 20. It’s often used to describe base-20 numbering systems.
Stane
Today’s word of the day is stane, Scots for stone in all its senses.
Nimrod
Today’s word of the day is nimrod. Most Americans today know it only as an insult meaning “jerk” or “loser,” but it has also historically meant “skillful hunter.” That meaning comes from Nimrod, explained in the Bible as a mighty hunter, king of Shinar, grandson of Ham, a great-grandson of Noah. The newer, less-kind meaning probably comes from the phrase “poor little Nimrod,” used by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny to mock the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd. The reference passed by a lot of cartoon-viewers and they interpreted it as an insult they’d never heard before.