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Jettatura:  The casting of an evil eye 

Hasma: A charm made to ward off the evil eye

     

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Acersecomic: A person whose hair has never been cut 
     

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Monday Meme

wEIRD wORD wEDNESDAY

Words, like the rest of the world, evolve.  Here are some words whose original meanings you may not recognize.
Source: 

1. Egregious: It used to be possible for it to be a good thing to be egregious: it meant you were distinguished or eminent. But in the end, the negative meaning of the word won out, and now it means that someone or something is conspicuously bad — not conspicuously good.
2. Naughty: Long ago, if you were naughty, you had naught or nothing. Then it came to mean evil or immoral, and now you are just badly behaved.
3. Silly: Meanwhile, silly went in the opposite direction: in its earliest uses, it referred to things worthy or blessed; from there it came to refer to the weak and vulnerable, and more recently to those who are foolish.
4. Hussy: Believe it or not, hussy comes from the word housewife (with several sound changes, clearly) and used to refer to the mistress of a household, not the disreputable woman it refers to today.

     

Monday Meme

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Sometimes, what a word means in one location is completely different from what that same word means in a different place.

Jumper

 
British meaning:  a sweater

vs.

North American meaning:  A person who jumps   

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Hamartia:  The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall 
     

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Noegenisis:  The production of knowledge
     

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Callipygian:
having shapely buttocks

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Vibrissae:
on mammals: long stiff hairs around the mouth or face used as organs of touch; whiskers
on birds: course feathers on the bill and eyes that catch insects in flight on certain birds
     

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Twitterpated:
infatuated; obsessed
in a state of nervous excitement

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Prognostication:
a statement about what is going to happen in the future

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OH MY!  There's a story here

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Gules:
a blazoning term for red, e.g. on a coat of arms

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