Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers -schaffer/barrows
Showing posts with label weird word Wednesday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weird word Wednesday. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
wEIRD wORD wEDNESDAY
Words, like the rest of the world, evolve. Here are some words whose original meanings you may not recognize.
Source:
Source:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Labels:
definitions,
vocabulary,
weird word Wednesday
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
wEIRD wORD wEDNESDAY
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
Labels:
definitions,
vocabulary,
weird word Wednesday
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
wEIRD wORD wEDNESDAY
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

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
Labels:
definitions,
vocabulary,
weird word Wednesday
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
wEIRD wORD wEDNESDAY
Animism:
1) the attribution of a soul to plants inanimate objects and natural phenomenon;
2) the belief in a supernatural being that organizes and brings life to the material universe
1) the attribution of a soul to plants inanimate objects and natural phenomenon;
2) the belief in a supernatural being that organizes and brings life to the material universe
Labels:
definitions,
vocabulary,
weird word Wednesday
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
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