t
(SMS) tea
ta
(SMS) thanks again
tabby
A domestic cat with a striped and mottled coat.
Etymology: The silks created by weavers
in Baghdad, Iraq, were
inspired by the varied colors and markings of
cat coats. These fabrics were called "tabby"
by European traders.
tabloid
In 1878, Henry Wellcome went into partnership
with his fellow American Silas Burroughs to set
up a pharmaceutical business in London. They needed a word for the highly compressed pills that his
firm produced. "Tablet" wouldn't serve,
as it was a much older term (literally a little
table) used since the sixteenth century to mean
any kind of solid medicine made up in small flat
rectangles. Wellcome created "tabloid"
from "tablet" plus the ending
"-oid" that meant "having
the form or likeness of"; this was registered
as a trademark in 1884. As well as drugs, the
company used the brand name for other products,
such as photographic chemicals and tea (though
presumably not sold in tablet form). The problem
came near the end of the century when people started
to use the word for anything of compressed compass,
for example for the Daily Mail, a newspaper in
half-pint format that had been first published
in May 1896 under the slogan "The penny newspaper
for one halfpenny". This was the precursor
of all modern tabloids, with an emphasis on short
stories simply told, on sport and human interest
topics, and with the innovation of a women's page.
The first recorded use of "tabloid"
for this style of journalism is from the very
beginning of the twentieth century, from the Westminster
Gazette of 1 January 1901. In 1903, Burroughs Wellcome sued Thompson
and Capper, a Manchester
firm, for using their trademark without permission.
In its defence, that firm pointed out that "tabloid"
was by then widely used, mentioning recent issues
of Punch, Tatler, Nature, and the Daily Mirror
(another tabloid, founded that year), which had
employed phrases such as, e.g., "opera
in tabloid", "tabloid melodrama",
"knowledge in tabloid form", "tabloid
missives" and "modern art in tabloid".
Burroughs Wellcome, it was argued, had thereby
lost all rights to "tabloid" and that
the action was "an attempt on the part of
the plaintiff to prevent the proper development
of the English language". Burroughs Wellcome
won; the judge agreed that the word had indeed
acquired a secondary sense of "a compressed
form or dose of anything", but that it didn't
interfere with the firm's trademark rights. These
days, of course, the sense of a type of tablet
has long since passed out of use and "tabloid"
refers solely to a small-format popular newspaper.
Except, of course, when it's a broadsheet in disguise.
tabula rasa
[tab-yuh-luh-RAH-zuh]
1. The mind in its hypothetical primary
blank or empty state before receiving outside
impressions.
2. Something existing in its original pristine
state.
Example:
Our newly built house, with its unpainted walls,
is a tabula rasa awaiting our decorative touches.
History:
Philosophers have been arguing that babies are
born with minds that are essentially blank slates
since the days of Aristotle. (Later, some psychologists
took up the case as well.) English speakers have
called that initial state of mental blankness
"tabula rasa" (a term
taken from a Latin phrase that translates as "smooth
or erased tablet") since the 16th century,
but it wasn't until British philosopher John
Locke championed the concept in his "Essay
Concerning Human Understanding" in 1690
that the term gained widespread popularity in
our language. In later years, a figurative sense
of the term emerged, referring to something that
exists in its original state and that has yet
to be altered by outside forces.
tacit
an adjective meaning "expressed without words"
Synonym: implied
Etymology:
The word is a descendent of the verb "tacere,"
meaning "to be silent". "Tacit"
has been used since 1576.
taciturn
temperamentally disinclined to talk
Example:
Upon hearing that soft-spoken Calvin Coolidge
- arguably the most taciturn president in U.S.
history - had died, Dorothy Parker quipped, "How
could they tell?".
Etymology:
We first find "taciturn"
in a satiric drama written in 1734 by James Miller,
a British clergyman educated at Oxford. A character describes a nephew thus: "When he was little,
he never was what they call Roguish or Waggish,
but was always close, quiet, and taciturn."
It seems we waited unduly long to adopt this useful
descendent of the verb "tacere",
meaning "to be silent" - we were much
quicker to adopt other words from the "tacere"
family. We've been using "tacit",
an adjective meaning "expressed without words"
or "implied," since 1576. And we've
had the noun "taciturnity",
meaning "habitual silence", since at
least 1450.
taciturnity
habitual silence
Etymology:
The word is a descendent of the verb "tacere,"
meaning "to be silent". "Taciturnity"
has been used since at least 1450.
tag along
1. To follow someone around.
2. A person who follows someone around.
Examples:
1) You're going to the new coffee
shop? Do you mind if I tag along? 2)
My little brother is such a tag along - he follows
me everywhere I go!
Etymology:
A 'tag' is a piece of paper that hangs
from something - for example, there is a 'tag'
on a new pair of pants to tell you how much they
cost. 'Along' means 'with' or 'beside'.
So to 'tag along' means to go with
somebody but to follow their lead, to 'hang' on
them as they go about their business.
take at one's word
- take
smb. at his word
- take
at
- word
- take
- take
up on
- take smb. up on smth.
- take
up
To believe everything someone says; to act on
what is said.
Example:
If you say you never watch TV, I'll take you at
your word and throw this TV-set out of the window.
Synonym: take (smb.) up on (smth.)
take it on
the chin
- take
it on
- chin
- take
it
- on
the chin
- take
1. To be badly beaten or hurt.
Example:
Our football team really took it on the chin today.
they are all bumps and bruises. Mother and I took
it on the chin in the card game.
2. To accept without complaint something
bad that happens to you; accept trouble or defeat
calmly.
Example:
A good football player can take it on the chin
when his team loses.
Synonym: take things on the chin
take its toll
To be damaging or harmful, cause loss or
destruction.
Examples:
1) The civil war has taken its toll
on both sides.
2) The heavy truck traffic has taken
its toll on the highways.
3) His new job and the long hours
have begun to take their toll on his health.
Etymology:
This expression transfers the taking of "toll",
a tribute or tax, to exacting other costs. [Late
1800s.]
Incidentally, though the tolling of bells
is often associated with death (remember John
Donne: "Any man's death diminishes me, because
I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never
send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls
for thee"), the verb comes from another
source, probably a special use of the dialect
"toll", meaning "to
drag or pull", which was transferred
from the pulling of the bell rope to the sound
of the bell.
take public
- take
the company public
- take
- company
- public
sell shares in a company to the general public
Examples:
1) We decided it was necessary to
take our company public in order to raise money
to expand our facilities.
2) After dinner he made an announcement
he would soon regret: he was going to take the
company public.
Synonym:
take the company public
Explanation:
In American business, there are single proprietor
businesses, partnerships, and Corporations. Small
businesses are usually one of the first two. When
the business starts to get bigger, the owner incorporates
and sells the stock in the company, or takes
(the company) public. It
has its advantages and disadvantages.
take the bull by the horns
- take by
- take
- bull
- horns
- horn
To deal with a problem directly and resolutely;
to confront a problem or challenge.
Examples:
1) I took the bull by the horns
and finished the assignment a week early. 2)
If you don't take the bull by the horns and ask
your boss for a raise, you'll never get one.
Etymology: This phrase comes from astrology.
Taurus, the bull, has a reputation for trouble
and difficulty. If you grab the horns of this
difficult beast and bring it under control, it's
like dealing directly and forcefully with your
problems.
take things on the chin
- take
things
- on
the chin
- take
things easy
- take
it easy
- take
- thing
- things
- chin
- easy
To accept without complaint something bad that
happens to you; accept trouble or defeat calmly.
Example:
The doctor says I'm supposed to take things on
the chin for a while.
Synonyms: take things easy, take it easy
take up on
- take smb. up on smth.
- take
smb. up on
- take
up
- take
smb. up
- take
- take
smb. at his word
- take
at one's word
- word
1. To accept something from somebody;
to accept somebody's offer or wager. Example:
You've offered to help me, and I'll take you up
on that sometime.
2. To take someone at his word.
Example:
Since a politician never believes what he says,
he is quite surprised to be taken up on.
take-home
pay
talisman
[TAL-iss-mun]
1. An object held to act as a charm to
avert evil and bring good fortune.
2. Something producing apparently magical
or miraculous effects.
Example:
When the pop quiz was announced, Sam reached for
his lucky penny, hoping the talisman would bring
him success.
Etymology:
The Englishmen might have borrowed "talisman"
from French, Spanish, or Italian; all three include
similar-looking words for a lucky charm. Those
three terms derive from a single Arabic word for
a charm, "tilsam." "Tilsam"
in turn can be traced to the ancient Greek verb
"talein," which means "to
initiate into the mysteries."
talk trash
To use bad words while competing; to try to intimidate
an opponent with foul language.
Examples:
1) He's always talking trash on the basketball
court. 2) The other team was talking trash the
whole game, but we beat them anyway.
Etymology: This phrase comes from basketball.
'Trash' refers to worthless or dirty things, and
'talk' refers to speech. Some players curse and
say bad things in order to distract or intimidate
the other team.
tamale
[tuh-MAH-lee]
Cornmeal dough rolled with ground meat or
beans seasoned usually with chili, wrapped usually
in corn husks, and steamed.
Example:
As... the Swedish winter grew bitter and dark,
I desperately needed comfort food. Enchiladas
and tamales would have done just fine. (Edward
Barrios Acevedo, Scripps Howard News Service,
March 31, 2005)
Etymology, related words:
"Tamale" gives you one;
it came to English (by way of Mexican Spanish)
from the Nahuatl - a group of languages spoken
by native peoples of Mexico and Central America
- "tamalli," a word for steamed
cornmeal dough. Add to the menu "chili"
(from "chilli," identifying all
those fiery peppers); "chocolate"
(from "chocolatl," first used
for a beverage made from chocolate and water);
"guacamole" (from "ahuacatl,"
meaning "avocado," plus "molli,"
meaning "sauce"); and "tomato"
(from "tomatl"). Top it all off
with a word that's new to the English dictionary:
"chipotle" (a smoked and
dried pepper), from "chilli"
+ "poctli" (meaning "something
smoked").
tanorexia
The state of always feeling "not tan enough";
the condition of being addicted to tanning.
Example:
Females in their teens and twenties have been
swallowed into a new beauty craze tanorexia.
Etymology:
The term can be traced back at least to the mid-1990s;
though it is known from American sources, the
majority are British. The obvious pun on "anorexia"
does make a kind of sense, since the Greek root
of the latter word is "orexis"
("appetite"), so that "tanorexia"
might be thought of as an excess appetite for
tanning. The word has been coined by doctors alarmed
at the spiralling numbers of youngsters putting
themselves at risk of skin cancer as they chase
the perfect skin colour.
tantamount
[TANT-uh-mount]
equivalent in value, significance, or effect
Example:
The boss had told Morris that he was being reassigned
to the shipping department, and he knew that it
was tantamount to a demotion.
History:
"Tantamount" comes from
the Anglo-French phrase "tant amunter,"
meaning "to amount to as much." This
phrase comes from the Old French "tant,"
meaning "so much" or "as much,"
and "amounter," meaning "to
ascend" or "to add up to." When
"tantamount" first entered
English, it was used similarly to the Anglo-French
phrase, as a verb meaning "to be equivalent."
"His not denying tant-amounteth to the
affirming of the matter," wrote clergyman
Thomas Fuller in 1659, for example.
There was also a noun "tantamount"
in the 17th century, but the adjective is the
only commonly used form of the term nowadays.
tapping the Admiral
- tap
the Admiral
- tapping
- the
Admiral
- tap
- Admiral
- suck
the monkey
- sucking
the monkey
- suck
- monkey
- sucking
(Royal Navy slang)
1. surreptitious drinking
2. getting an unauthorized drink of rum
via a surreptitious straw
3. take a small quantity of strong drink
Etymology & Synonym:
Various versions exist of this wild tale but all
purport to describe what happened to the body
of Admiral Nelson after his death at the battle
of Trafalgar. His remains, it is said, were put
in a cask of rum to preserve them on the voyage
back to Britain. Sailors who would do anything
for a drink bored a hole in the cask with a gimlet
and drew off quantities of the rum through a straw.
So many did so that when the body arrived in London
the cask was found to be nearly empty. Though
Nelson's body was preserved in this way, albeit
in brandy not rum, the story is clearly a folk
legend. Similar ghoulish tales have been told
in many circumstances, including one of a couple
who bought a house that had once been an inn and
who were delighted to find that one of the old
casks in the cellar still held rum. Only after
they had emptied it and cut the cask in two to
make plant containers for the garden did they
find the well-preserved remains of a man inside.
Jan Harald Brunvand, the American academic who
has made a lifelong study of such legends, has
told versions in one of his books, including a
related one dating back six hundred years about
some tomb robbers in Egypt. Other tales tell of
containers holding similarly preserved bodies
of monkeys or apes that spring a leak on their
way from Africa to museums; the leaking spirits
are consumed with a gusto that turns to horror
when the truth of the situation emerges. Though
the story about Lord Nelson is folklore, like
all good tales it's grounded in an acute understanding
of the cupidity of human beings, provides a moral
lesson, and is based on real situations. Important
persons who died at sea in centuries past did
indeed have their corpses preserved in a barrel
of spirits so they could be brought home for proper
burial (embalming didn't arrive until the 1860s
and even then wasn't available at sea). A related
expression, "suck the monkey"
was current in the London docks in the 19th century
to describe the practice of boring a hole in a
cask of spirits to steal the contents; this might
conceivably have built on the tale about monkeys'
bodies preserved in casks of spirits, though it
is more likely to have had a different origin.
The expression "tapping the Admiral"
appeared in the Royal Navy in the late 19th century.
We may deride the folk tale about sailors sipping
from the cask containing Nelson's body, but it
does seem to be the origin of the expression.
tarradiddle
- taradiddle
- diddle
- didrian
[tair-uh-DID-uhl]
Also: taradiddle
1. A petty falsehood; a fib.
2. Pretentious nonsense.
3. (archaic) the act or time of
tarrying; delay; lateness
Examples:
1) Oh please! Even in the parallel
universe, tarradiddles of this magnitude cannot
go unchallenged. ("Taxation in the parallel
universe", Sunday Business, June 11, 2000)
2) Mr B did not tell a whopper.
This was no fib, plumper, porker or tarradiddle.
There was definitely no deceit, mendacity or fabrication.
("Looking back", Western Mail, May
11, 2002)
3) And after two days' tarriance
there, they returned.
Etymology:
The true origin of "taradiddle"
is unknown, but there's a lot of balderdash about
its history. Some folks try to connect it to the
verb "diddle" (meaning
"to cheat"), but that hasn't been proven
and may turn out to be poppycock. One may hear
some tommyrot about it coming from the Old English
verb "didrian", which
meant "to deceive", but that couldn't
be true unless "didrian"
was somehow suddenly revived after eight or nine
centuries of disuse. No one even knows when "taradiddle"
was first used, though it must have been long
before it showed up in a 1796 dictionary of colloquial
speech (where it was defined as a synonym of "fib").
tarred with the same
brush
- be tarred with the same brush
- tar with the same brush
- painted with the same brush
- be painted with the same brush
- paint with the same brush
- tarred with
- the same brush
- tarred
- same brush
- tar with
- tar
- same
- brush
1. Not better, not at all more desirable
2. Include in the same group, generalize
Synonym:
painted with the same brush
History, examples:
There's nothing directly racist in its history,
though there are such huge sensitivities in the
United States and elsewhere over any expression
that sounds as though it might be (as, for
example, with words and phrases such as
"niggardly", "call a spade a spade",
and so on). As it happens, it doesn't have anything
directly to do with tarring and feathering, either,
which is an American vigilante punishment known
from the eighteenth century (it's first recorded
in Boston) and wasn't usually a punishment of
blacks by whites but of whites by other whites.
The origin is the verb "to tar",
meaning to defile or dirty, known from the early
years of the seventeenth century. The idiom appears
in print first in 1818, in one of Sir Walter
Scott's novels, "Rob Roy":
"They are a' tarr'd wi' the same stick
- rank Jacobites and Papists." Our modern
form appears in William Cobbett's "Rural
Rides" in 1823: "'You are all
tarred with the same brush', said the sensible
people of Maidstone." The idea behind
it is that two individuals who have been liberally
daubed or painted with the same tar brush look
much the same and so appear to have the same characteristics.
The links of the colour black with matters that
were detestable, dishonourable or evil also added
to the negative sense.
tatterdemalion
[tat-uhr-dih-MAYL-yuhn; -MAY-lee-uhn]
1. A person dressed in tattered or ragged
clothing.
Synonym: ragamuffin.
2. Tattered; ragged.
Examples:
1) Last time peasant blouses surfaced,
in the 1960s and '70s, they were part of an epidemic
of Indian bedspread dresses, homemade blue-jean
skirts, Army surplus jackets, Greek bookbag purses
and love beads, the whole eclectic tatterdemalion
mix meant to express egalitarian sentiments and
countercultural solidarity with underdogs everywhere.
(Patricia McLaughlin, "The peasant look,"
Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, April 25, 1999)
2) I was expecting a wild hair,
clanking jewelry, a tatterdemalion velvet cape
from whose folds wafted the scent of incense,
a house full of candles, dream catchers, cats,
and bad art. (David Rakoff, "Fraud")
3) To my ear, though, the prose
has the tatterdemalion feel of something hooked
together by commas, tacked together by periods.
(Brad Leithauser,"Capturer of Hearts,"
New York Times, April 7, 1996)
Etymology:
"Tatterdemalion" derives
from "tatter" + "-demalion",
of unknown origin, though perhaps from Old French
"maillon" - "long clothes,
swadding clothes" or Italian "maglia"
- "undershirt."
tattoo
[ta-TOO]
1. A rapid, rhythmic drumming or rapping.
2. A beat of a drum, or sound of a trumpet
or bugle, giving notice to soldiers to go to their
quarters at night.
Examples:
1) A display of military exercises
given as evening entertainment. Joss blew out
her breath, stamped her feet in a short tattoo,
and sat jiggling one leg. (John Casey, "The
Half-life of Happiness")
2) There are more golf courses per
person in Naples than anywhere else in the world,
and in spite of the hot, angry weather everyone
around the hotel was dressed to play, their cleated
shoes tapping out a clickety-clickety-clickety
tattoo on the sidewalks. (Susan Orlean, "The
Orchid Thief")
3) With a steady tattoo of bad news
beginning to offset what had been one of the most
vibrant parts of the U.S. economy, "we are
less optimistic than we were two months ago about
the speed of the bounce back," Mr. Williams
said. (Eduardo Porter, "California's Economic
Slowdown Is Expected to Last Much Longer,"
Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2001)
Etymology:
"Tattoo" is an alteration
of earlier "taptoo", from Dutch
"taptoe" - "a tap(house)-shut,"
from "tap" ("faucet")
+ "toe" ("shut") - meaning,
essentially, that the tavern is about to shut.
Trivia: The more familiar tattoo,
"an indelible mark or figure made by puncturing
the skin and introducing some pigment into the
punctures," derives from entirely different
roots. That
tattoo comes from Tahitian "tatau".
tawdry
[TAW-dree]
1. Cheap and gaudy in appearance or quality.
Example:
Tom and Pam found themselves in an unfamiliar
section of the city, walking by tawdry storefronts
and shady bars.
2. Ignoble.
History, related words:
In the 7th century, Etheldreda, the queen of Northumbria,
renounced her husband and her royal position for
the veil of a nun. She was renowned for her saintliness
and is traditionally said to have died of a swelling
in her throat, which she took as a judgment upon
her fondness for wearing necklaces in her youth.
Her shrine became a principal site of pilgrimage
in England. An annual fair was held in her honor
on October 17th, and her name became simplified
to St. Audrey. At these fairs various kinds
of cheap knickknacks were sold, along with a type
of necklace called "St. Audrey's lace,"
which by the 17th century had become altered to
"tawdry lace." Eventually,
"tawdry" came to be used
to describe anything cheap and gaudy that might
be found at these fairs or anywhere else.
tbc
(SMS) to be continued
tear up the pea patch
- tearing
up the pea patch
- tear
up
- pea
patch
- tear
- pea
- patch
- rage
- storm
- brawl
- riot
- kick
up
- kick
up a row
- row
- make
a row
go on a rampage; behave outrageously / violently;
get / be violent; be in a rage, be ranting and
raving, be mad with rage
Synonyms:
rage, storm; brawl, riot, kick up a row, make
a row
Example:
Changes will have to be introduced carefully.
Please avoid "tearing up the pea patch".
History:
Sportscaster Walter "Red" Barber
was from the South, and most Southern boys lard
their speech with homely colloquial phrases. Black-eyed
peas are a favourite Southern dish, and almost
everyone has a pea patch. If a stray dog or cow
broke through the fence and got into one of these
pea patches, a great deal of damage was done.
One might hear such an expression as 'That critter
is tearing up the pea patch!' It is an old expression
down South and 'Red' Barber didn't create
it. He popularized it. In describing a 'rhubarb'
(baseball slang for a fight among players of opposing
teams) Barber would exclaim, "They're tearing
up the pea patch!" His listeners got the
picture right away. The first appearance of the
expression in print was in a famous short story
"The Catbird Seat" by James
Thurber, published in the New Yorker in 1942:
"In the halls, in the elevator, even in his
own office, into which she romped now and then
like a circus horse, she was constantly shouting
these silly questions at him. 'Are you lifting
the oxcart out of the ditch? Are you tearing up
the pea patch?' "
techie
[tEk-ee]
Someone who knows a lot about technology and computers;
a computer programmer or enthusiast.
Examples:
1) My pal Eddy is a techie at Distance
Learning, Inc. 2) Our computer firm
is looking for a few techies to finish a big programming
project.
Etymology:
'Tech' is a common short form of
'technology', and the '-ie' at the
end signifies that the word applies to a person.
This term emerged in the early 1980s, as computers
became increasingly popular.
tecticolous
Plants or invertebrates (animals without
backbones) growing or living on roofs.
Example:
In 2002, "English Nature" commissioned
a survey of tecticolous invertebrates on a number
of roofs in the London area.
Etymology:
The word "tecticolous"
and its derivative "tecticole"
is coined by a botanist R.M. Payne (2000,
from the Latin "tectum" - "a
roof"), as an analog to the similar terms
"rupestral" for plants growing on rocks
and "viatical" for plants growing on
roads.
teenie weenie
Very small.
Example:
The teenie-weenie plot was uncovered by French
dadaist Toulouse Le Grandfig.
teetotaler
[TEE-TOH-tuh-lur]
One pledged to entire abstinence from all intoxicating
drinks.
Examples:
1) Her son, in his idealized recollections,
would describe her as a near teetotaler, hardly
venturing beyond a lady-like glass of champagne.
(A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax, "Bogart")
2) Her father, previously a teetotaler,
had begun drinking, and his health had taken a
turn for the worse. (Stephen
A. Black, "Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning
and Tragedy")
Etymology, related words:
"Teetotaler" is from "tee"
(the letter "t", as in "total")
+ "total" + "-er".
"Teetotalism" is the principle
or practice of complete abstinence from alcoholic
drinks.
teetotum
- jenny-spinner
- whirligig
- scopperil
- dreidel
- jenny
- spinner
A small spinning top.
Example:
"We spun round and round for a few seconds,
like a teetotum, I steering the whole time for
all I was worth, and then the current dragged
the canoe ignominiously down river, tail foremost."
(Mary Kingsley, "Travels in West
Africa")
History & Etymology:
Strictly and originally, it wasn't just any spinning
top, but one with four sides, each with a letter
on it that decided the outcome of a player's turn
in a game. The letters were conventionally TADN,
the initials of Latin words, one being "totum",
take everything from the pot. This supplied the
old name of the device, the initial "T",
expanded to "tee", being added later.
The other letters stood for "aufer",
take one stake from the pot, "depone",
put one stake into the pot, and "nihil",
do nothing. The letters were later changed to
fit English words, but the old name remained,
though it can sometimes mean a four-sided die
instead. Despite its form, "teetotum"
has no connection with "teetotal". It
is an ancient device, once common in adult gambling,
but by the nineteenth century was largely restricted
to children's games. The device was so familiar
that it was commonly used to refer to the act
of spinning around. It appears in Lewis Carroll's
"Through the Looking-Glass": "'Are
you a child or a teetotum?' the Sheep said, as
she took up another pair of needles. 'You'll make
me giddy soon, if you go on turning round like
that.'" It isn't surprising that the word
should have taken on the broader sense of spinning
top, losing the connection with a game of chance.
Synonyms:
The toy has had many local or dialect names, such
as "jenny-spinner", "whirligig",
and "scopperil", the last
of these once known in the Midlands and North
of England; these names often referred to an improvised
top, perhaps made from a button with a piece of
wood through it, rather than to a method of playing
a game of chance. Jews will know "dreidel"
(from a Yiddish word related to German "drehen",
to turn), similarly a four-sided spinning top
that was used especially for a children's game
played at Hanukkah. This has the Hebrew letters
nun, gimel, he and shin on it. The letters spell
out the initials of the Hebrew phrase "a
great miracle happened there" (the miracle
being the tiny amount of oil that burned for eight
days in the Temple in Jerusalem) but in the game
meant "do nothing", "take all",
"take half" and "put in".
telegenic
[tel-uh-JEN-ik]
Well-suited to the medium of television; especially:
having an appearance and manner that are markedly
attractive to television viewers.
Example:
The advertising agency is always on the lookout
for telegenic people for its commercials.
Etymology, related words, more examples:
"Telegenic," which first
appeared in print in 1939, is essentially a compound
formed out of "television" and
"photogenic." "Photogenic"
is also the word that caused the addition of a
new sense to "-genic," namely
"suitable for production or reproduction
by a given medium", as in the occasionally
seen "videogenic": "The
'80s were a time that created a lot of videogenic
bands who weren't necessarily compelling live
artists...." (Ron Shapiro, quoted in "Entertainment
Weekly", September 25, 1998). "Telegenic"
may seem like a word that would primarily refer
to people, but there is evidence for telegenic
events (such as popular sports),
objects, and responses. Occasionally,
one even sees reference to a telegenic attitude
or other intangible.
telegraphese
[tel-uh-graf-EEZ]
Language characterized by the terseness and ellipses
that are common in telegrams.
Example:
The translator couldn't keep up with the speaker,
so what we heard of the speech sounded like telegraphese.
History:
E-mail's the thing nowadays, but in the 19th century
the way to send a quick message to someone far
away was, of course, the telegraph. The original
French namers of the telegraph ("telegraphe"
in French) took a lesson from the Greeks: Greek
"tele-" means "distant,"
and "-graphe" traces to a Greek
verb meaning "to write." Later, a message
sent by telegraph was dubbed in English a "telegram"
(from Greek "gramma," meaning
"letter"). Telegrams were a great
innovation, but they were expensive. You had to
pay by the word, so folks created a kind of shorthand
that let them keep their missives brief. By the
late 1800s, "telegraphese"
was being used for any language that was as terse
as the clipped and cryptic style used in telegrams.
teleological
[tel-ee-uh-LAH-jih-kul]
Exhibiting or relating to design or
purpose, especially in nature.
Example:
"What is the true purpose of life's voyage?"
wrote John R. Illingworth in 1907, posing what
he termed "the great teleological question."
History, related words:
"Teleological" (which
comes to us by way of New Latin from the Greek
root "tele-, telos," meaning
"end or purpose") and its close
relative "teleology" both
entered English in the 18th century, followed
by "teleologist" in the
19th century. "Teleology"
has the basic meaning "the study of ends
or purposes." A teleologist
attempts to understand the purpose of
something by looking at its results. A teleological
philosopher might argue that we should
judge whether an act is good or bad by seeing
if it produces a good or bad result, and a teleological
explanation of evolutionary changes claims
that all such changes occur for a definite purpose.
temerarious
[tem-uh-RAIR-ee-uhs]
Recklessly or presumptuously daring; rash.
Examples:
1) Becket's slayers insist that
the king had indeed authorized or directed murder,
an interpretation fortified by Henry's known enmity
toward the temerarious priest for protesting the
subordination of ecclesiastical to secular authority.
(Bruce Fein, "Free speech or call to violence?"
Washington Times, April 10, 2001)
2) I have confessed myself a temerarious
theologian, and in that passage from boyhood to
manhood I ranged widely in my search for some
permanently satisfying Truth. (H. G. Wells,
"The New Machiavelli")
Etymology:
"Temerarious" comes from
Latin "temerarius" ("rash"),
from "temere" ("rashly,
heedlessly").
temerity
[tuh-MER-uh-tee] Unreasonable or
foolhardy contempt of danger; rashness.
Examples:
1) The elaborate caution with which
the British commander now proceeded stands out
in striking contrast with the temerity of his
advance upon Bunker Hill in the preceding year.
(John Fiske, "Washington's Great Campaign
of 1776", The Atlantic, January 1889)
2) When English merchants had the
temerity to set up a trading post or 'factory'
- junior merchants were known as factors - the
Dutchmen defended their monopoly by massacring
them. (Anthony Read and David Fisher, "The
Proudest Day")
3) Drivers with the temerity to
accelerate out of turns are likely to encounter
torque steer, an unsettling glitch in control
as the engine fights to take charge of the steering.
(Peter Passell, "Mitsubishi Diamante:
Back From Down Under", New York Times, February
23, 1997)
4) Throughout the anti-trust trial
its executives treated the courts and the US government
with sneering contempt, coupled with a ratty annoyance
that any public authority should have the temerity
to interfere in its business. (John Naughton,
"Gates must not win at monopoly", The
Observer, October 28, 2001)
Etymology:
"Temerity" comes from
Latin "temeritas", from "temere"
("blindly, rashly").
tempest in a teapot
- a
tempest in a teapot
- tempest
- teapot
A tempest is a very large storm, and a teapot
is quite small. We use this expression when a
large commotion is made over something pretty
little.
Example:
"Being Rapunzel for Halloween was my idea.
Mandy stole my idea, and I'm never going to speak
to her again," Janice shouted.
"Don't make a tempest in a teapot,"
said Janice's sister. "A costume isn't worth
losing your best friend over."
temporize
[TEM-puh-ryz]
1. To be indecisive or evasive in
order to gain time or delay action.
2. To comply with the time or occasion;
to yield to prevailing opinion or circumstances;
to act to suit the time or occasion.
3. To engage in discussions or negotiations
so as to gain time (usually followed by 'with').
4. To come to terms (usually followed
by 'with').
Examples:
1) The best Dukakis game plan would
seem to be to take a leaf from Jesse's book: make
no final deals, temporize, and talk it to death.
(John McLaughlin, "What to do with Jesse?",
National Review, October 14, 1988)
2) But when it comes to paying out
claims, too many third-party providers stall,
balk and temporize. (Stacie Zoe Berg, "Rx
for reluctant health insurers," Insight on
the News, September 22, 1997)
3) On the big issues, Reagan rejected
the importuning of his senior aides. He refused
to temporize on the 1981 tax cut that ended Jimmy
Carter's stagflation. At Reykjavik in 1985, he
turned down State Department advice for an arms
deal and stood fast to open the way for the Soviet
collapse. (Robert Novak, "For the Great
Communicator, presidency was about big dreams,"
Chicago Sun-Times, June 2004)
4) The only alternative policy is
to temporize, to make a series of concessions
to North Korea as a way to buy time. (Charles
Krauthammer, "U.S. should appease N. Korea
- temporarily," Deseret News, March 9, 2003)
5) In the end, the price that was
paid was tragically so much higher than it would
have been if the democracies had shed their illusions
that they could temporize with evil. (Mortimer
B. Zuckerman, "It's time to fight back,"
US News & World Report, September 7, 1998)
Etymology, related words, explanation:
"Temporize" derives from
Medieval Latin "temporizare"
("to pass the time"), from Latin "tempus,
tempor-" ("time"). It is related
to "temporary". ("Tempus"
is also an ancestor of such words as "tempo,"
"contemporary," and "temporal.")
If you need to buy some time, you might resort
to temporizing - but you probably
won't win admiration for doing so. "Temporize"
can have a somewhat negative connotation. For
instance, a political leader faced with a
difficult issue might temporize
by talking vaguely about possible solutions without
actually doing anything. The point of such temporizing
is to avoid taking definite - and possibly unpopular
- action, in hopes that the problem will somehow
go away. But the effect is often just to make
matters worse.
tendentious
[ten-DEN-shus]
Marked by a tendency in favor of a particular
point of view.
Synonym: biased.
Example:
I always suspected I was getting a highly tendentious
version of the town's notorious family feud from
my mother, who worked for one of the families
for many years.
Etymology:
"Tendentious" is one of
several words English speakers can choose when
they want to suggest that someone has made up
his or her mind in advance. You may be partial
to "predisposed" or prone to favor "partisan,"
but whatever your leanings, you'll benefit from
adding "tendentious" to
your repertoire. A derivative of the Medieval
Latin "tendentia," meaning "tendency,"
plus the English suffix "-ious,"
"tendentious" has been
used in English as an adjective for biased attitudes
since at least 1900.
tenderfoot
- tender-foot
- newcomer
- fledgeling
- fledgling
- starter
- neophyte
- freshman
- newbie
- entrant
- novice
- beginner
- tyro
- apprentice
- greenhorn
- rookie
- newbie
A tenderfoot is a person who doesn't have very
much experience at something.
Example:
After Pete and Joe had pitched their tent, Pete
began to hoist the food bag into a tree.
"What are you doing that for?"asked
Joe.
"So the raccoons and bears don't get your
breakfast, tenderfoot," replied Pete, laughing.
Synonyms:
newcomer, fledgeling, fledgling, starter, neophyte,
freshman, newbie, entrant; novice, beginner, tyro,
apprentice; (informal) greenhorn, rookie,
newbie.
tenebrous
[TEN-uh-bruhs]
Dark; gloomy.
Examples:
1) He found the Earl, who is eight
feet tall and has the family trait of a Cyclops
eye, standing stock still, dressed from head to
foot in deepest black, in one of the most tenebrous
groves in all his haunted domains. (Peter Simple,
"At Mountwarlock," Daily Telegraph,
March 20, 1998)
2) We are so used to the tenebrous
atmosphere that can be created in indoor theatres
that it's a shock to realise that this murkiest
of tragedies first saw the literal light of day
at the Globe theatre. (Paul Taylor, "Cool,
calm, disconnected," Independent, June 7,
2001)
3) And lurking behind our every move
is the knowledge of our own mortality. It gives
life its edgy disquiet, its tenebrous underside.
(Douglas Kennedy, "Sudden death,"
Independent, July 3, 1999)
Etymology:
"Tenebrous" derives from
Latin "tenebrosus", from "tenebrae"
("darkness").
tenet
[TEN-it]
Any opinion, principle, dogma, belief, or doctrine
that a person holds or maintains as true; especially:
one held in common by members of an organization,
movement, or profession.
Examples:
1) ...The tenet that all men are
created equal and seen as such by the eyes of
God. (Kaye Gibbons, "On the Occasion of
My Last Afternoon")
2) This kind of tolerance and receptivity
is itself a cardinal tenet of Enlightenment thought.
(Gary B. Nash, "History on Trial")
3) Since the 1950s, the central
tenet of US foreign policy and security strategy
had been to "contain" the Soviet Union
and communist domination and influence. (George
Bush and Brent Scowcroft, "A World Transformed")
4) The central tenet of whig theory
was the inevitability of progress. (William
L. Bird, Jr., "Better Living")
5) Aspiring writers are often advised
to follow one great literary tenet: write what
you know.
Etymology, related words:
"Tenet" comes from Latin
"tenet" ("he holds"
- something as true), from "tenere"
("to hold"). It is believed to have
been borrowed into English around 1600 from Latin
writings in which it often introduced the opinions
held by a particular church or sect. There are
a good many "tenere" descendants
in English, including some words that end in "-tain"
("abstain," "contain,"
"maintain," and "sustain,"
to name a few), and others that begin with
"ten-" (such as "tenable,"
meaning "capable of being held," and
"tenacious").
tergiversation
- equivocation
- tergiversate
- tergiversant
- tergiversator
[ter-jiv-er-SAY-shun]
1. Evasion of straightforward action
or clear-cut statement.
Synonym: equivocation.
Example:
The tergiversation of Ken's speech left his listeners
confused about where he really stood on the issue.
2. Desertion of a cause, position, party,
or faith.
Etymology, related words:
The Latin verb "tergiversari"
means "to show reluctance," and it comes
from the combination of "tergum,"
meaning "back," and "versare,"
meaning "to turn." "Tergiversari"
gave English the noun "tergiversation"
and the verb "tergiversate"
("to engage in tergiversation"). "Tergiversation"
is the slightly older term, having been around
since at least 1570; the first known use of "tergiversate"
dates from 1590. There's also the much rarer adjective
"tergiversant" ("tending
to evade"), as well as the noun "tergiversator"
("one that tergiversates").
termagant
['t@:m@g(@)nt]
A harsh-tempered or overbearing woman.
Example:
It emphasises that she is not the awful old termagant
she has so far seemed to be.
History, more examples:
It's a long way from the Crusades to the
modern sense of the word, but that's the path
we must follow to explain where we got it from.
In the Middle Ages, Crusaders knew almost nothing
about Islam and lumped everyone non-Christian
together as Saracens or pagans; they thought that
Mahmound (or Mahound) and Termagant were
among Islam's gods. The word appears about 1100
as "tervagaunt" in French, in
the "Chanson de Roland". The
Italian equivalent was "Trivagante",
which may in turn have come from Latin words for
a threefold wanderer; this referred to the moon,
which was considered to travel between heaven,
earth, and hell under the three names Selene,
Artemis, and Persephone. The word was borrowed
into English and became the usual name in the
medieval morality plays for an overbearing, violent
and turbulent character, the supposed god of the
Saracens, who was always dressed in Eastern
robes. He was borrowed by Shakespeare and
put into the mouth of that early theatre critic,
Hamlet: "I could have such a Fellow
whipt for o'erdoing Termagant: it out-Herods Herod".
The name had by then been generalised to mean
a quarrelsome person or bully. Around the middle
of the 17th century, the word changed sex to become
our modern term for a quarrelsome woman. It's
likely that people were confused by the Saracen's
robes in the morality plays and assumed that the
supposed god Termagant was really female.
terpsichorean
[terp-sih-kuh-REE-un]
of or relating to dancing
Example:
Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet headed south to Los Angeles
Sunday afternoon after infecting this town with
six days of ... terpsichorean frenzy.... (Allan
Ulrich, "The San Francisco Examiner",
August 10, 1987)
History, related words:
In Greek and Roman mythology, Terpsichore
([terp-SIH-kuh- ree]) was one of the nine muses,
those graceful sister-goddesses who presided over
learning and the arts. Terpsichore was
the patron of dance and choral song (and later
lyric poetry), and in artistic representations
she is often shown dancing and holding a lyre.
Her name, which earned an enduring place in English
through the adjective "terpsichorean,"
literally means "dance-enjoying," from
"terpsis," meaning "enjoyment,"
and "choros," meaning "dance."
"Choros" is also the source of
"choreography" and "chorus"
(those "choruses" in Athenian
drama consisted of dancers as well as singers).
The only other word we know that incorporates
"terpsis" is "terpodion,"
an obsolete term for a piano-like musical instrument
that was invented in 1816 but never really caught
on.
terra firma
[tair-uh-FER-muh]
Dry land; solid ground.
Example:
The passengers on the ocean liner looked forward
to setting foot on terra firma at the end of the
long voyage.
History, more examples:
The phrase comes directly from New Latin, where
it literally means "solid land." When
"terra firma" first set
foot in English prose in the 17th century, it
referred specifically to the dry land of continents
or mainlands (as distinct from smaller, more water-bound
landforms, such as islands), or even more specifically,
to certain Italian mainland territories controlled
by Venice. By the end of the 17th century, the
broader sense of "terra firma"
(any dry land) had also established footing. That
sense remains firmly established to this day.
Figurative use ("a theory built on the
terra firma of facts," for example)
is also common. The older senses, however, have
since crumbled away.
test the waters
- test
- the
waters
- waters
- water
To make a judgment about something before engaging
in more involved activity; to evaluate a situation
before committing to a course of action.
Examples:
1) We thought we'd test the waters
before committing to a serious relationship. 2)
We tested the waters and found that that there
is great demand for our new product.
Etymology: Before drinking water from a
water source, it is wise to make sure that the
water is safe and clean. So you 'test' or evaluate
the water before you actually drink it.
tetchy
[TETCH-ee]
Irritably or peevishly sensitive.
Synonym: touchy
Example:
Jeannette knew how tetchy her old friend Doris
could sometimes be, so she stifled the urge to
tease her about her dirty car.
Etymology and related words:
"Tetchy" is a word that
may have been coined by Shakespeare - its
first known use in English occurs in "Romeo
and Juliet" (1592). Etymologists are
not certain how the word came about, but some
have suggested that it derives from "tetch,"
an obsolete noun meaning "habit." The
similarity both in meaning and pronunciation to
"touchy" might lead you to conclude
that "tetchy" is related
to it, but there is no conclusive evidence to
suggest such a connection. The adjectives "teched"
and "tetched," meaning
"mentally unbalanced," are variations
of "touched," and are
probably also unrelated to "tetchy."
tete-a-tete
[TAYT-uh-TAYT; TET-uh-TET]
1. Private; confidential; familiar.
2. A private conversation between two people.
3. A short sofa intended to accommodate
two persons.
Examples:
1) Once you have a couple of offers
in hand, ask the boss for a tete-a-tete. (Michelle
Cottle, "Seeking That Fair Day's Pay."
New York Times, January 24, 1999)
2) George Adamski, a penny-ante guru
already in the flying saucer business, lecturing
on the subject and selling his own UFO photos,
had his first tete-a-tete with a Venusian named
Orthon, who explained by dumb show and telepathy
that his saucer was powered by Earth's magnetism.
(Thomas M. Disch, "The Dreams")
3) Our Stuff Is Made Of Raw garlic
will give you plenty of this disulfide, but cooking
gets rid of it because it is volatile enough to
evaporate during cooking. This is the reason you
can safely eat a soup or stew that has lots of
garlic in the recipe, and still enjoy a friendly
tete-a-tete with someone. (John Emsley, "Molecules
at an Exhibition")
Etymology:
"Tete-a-tete" comes from
the French, literally "head-to-head."
tete-a-tete
tetrapyloctomy
The act of splitting a hair four ways (lengthwise).
Example:
The Internet is probably the best environment
for conspiracy theories, but on the other hand
the best tool to stay informed about issues that
are not published in major newspapers or broadcast
networks. This came into my mind, when I got an
alerting Email from a mailing list called "Tetrapyloctomy"
that reminded me of watching "Wag the Dog".
("CBS Wags the Dog", <http://www.uni-giessen.de/fb03/vinci/labore/lounge/cbs.htm>)
History:
This word has found a secure of niche existence
in the lexicons of academics with a sense of humour
since it was invented by Umberto Eco in
his novel "Foucault's Pendulum",
published in English in 1989. In a mocking attempt
to reform higher education, one character proposes
a School of Comparative Irrelevance, whose aim
would be to turn out scholars capable of endlessly
increasing the number of unnecessary topics. In
it would be a Department of Tetrapyloctomy,
whose function would be to inculcate a sense of
irrelevance in its students. The word combines
"tetra" ("four") with
"pilus" ("hair", as
in "depilatory"), and the ending
"-(e)ctomy" - "cutting".
As the component parts come respectively from
Greek, Latin and Greek it's a miscegenated linguistic
sandwich.
textonym
- contranym
- retronym
- aptonym
- aptronym
A word generated by a set of key presses on a
mobile phone, when the phone is in predictive
mode, guessing what word you want.
Example:
Meg Kingston introduces us to the textonym...
For example, keys 2-2-4-3 can signify ache, acid
or cage.
Etymology, related words:
The "Feedback" column of "New
Scientist" introduced us to yet another
new word ending in "-nym" (from
Greek "onuma" - "name")
in November 2004. Not only do we have such well-established
terms as synonym, antonym, eponym
and pseudonym, a rush of creative energy
in recent years has given us contranym,
a word that means its own opposite, such as "cleave";
retronym, a term invented to clarify
another word whose meaning has become ambiguous
through cultural or technical evolution, such
as "acoustic guitar" or "two-parent
family"; and aptronym,
or aptonym, the name of a individual
that matches his occupation, such as a Mr Butcher
who is a surgeon or a dentist named Payne.
(The word is believed to have been coined by the
American newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams
as a rather neat anagram of "patronym",
so that the "r" belongs there.
It's recorded by 1920 but only became at all common
much more recently.) Now we've got textonym.
For example, 7-4-6-6-3-7 brings up the
words "phones", "simmer",
and "sinner".
thN
(SMS) 1. then; 2. thn
- thumbnail
thanatology
[than-uh-TAH-luh-jee]
The description or study of the phenomena
of death and of psychological mechanisms for coping
with them.
Example:
Those who work in the field of thanatology address
not only the needs of the dying but the effects
of death on the families as well.
Etymology:
In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the personification
of death, the twin brother of Hypnos (Sleep).
The ancient Greeks eventually came to use "thanatos"
as a generic word for "death." "Thanatology"
is a direct linguistic heir of the Greek term
and it was first documented in English in the
mid-1800s. In 1935, the name "Thanatos"
made a comeback in English, ushered in with psychoanalytic
theory and describing an unconscious tendency
toward self-destruction.
thank-you-ma'am
[THANK-yoo-mam]
A bump or depression in a road; especially:
a ridge or hollow made across a road on
a hillside to cause water to run off.
Example:
That night on the way home, thinking of his pleasant
visit, he was suddenly shaken out of his tranquility
... when his touring car hit a 'thank-you-ma'am'
in the unpaved road. (Hugh Manchester, "Centre
Daily Times" [State College, PA], August
22, 2000)
History:
"Thank-you-ma'am" might
seem like an odd name for a bump in the road,
but the expression makes a little more sense if
you imagine the motion your head would make as
you drove over such an obstacle. Most likely,
the jarring would make you nod involuntarily.
Now think of the nodding gesture you make when
you're thanking someone or acknowledging a favor.
The "thank-you-ma'am"
road bump is believed to have received its name
when someone noted the similarity of those two
head bobbing motions. It's a colloquialism particular
to American English, and its earliest printed
use is found in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's
1849 prose piece, "Kavanagh":
"We went like the wind over the hollows in
the snow; - the driver called them 'thank-you-ma'ams,'
because they make every body bow."
thaumaturgy
- thaumaturge
- thaumaturgist
- thaumaturgic
[THAW-muh-ter-jee]
The performance of miracles; specifically:
magic
Example:
In J.K. Rowling's debut novel, "Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer's Stone", Harry learns to
perform feats of thaumaturgy at Hogwarts School
of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Etymology, related words and notions:
The magic of "thaumaturgy"
is miraculous. The word, from a Greek word meaning
"miracle working," is applicable to
any performance of miracles, especially by incantation.
It can also be used of things that merely seem
miraculous and unexplainable, like the thaumaturgy
of a motion picture's illusions (aka "movie
magic"), or the thaumaturgy
at work in an athletic team's "miracle"
comeback. In addition to "thaumaturgy,"
we also have "thaumaturge"
and "thaumaturgist," both
of which mean "a performer of miracles"
or "a magician," and the adjective "thaumaturgic,"
meaning "performing miracles" or "of,
relating to, or dependent on thaumaturgy."
the Jolly Roger
- Jolly
Roger
- Roger
- jolie
rouge
- joli
rouge
- red
jack
- Old
Roger
the flag indicating a pirate ship
Example:
Set all sail, clear the deck, stand to quarters,
up with the Jolly Roger! (Sir Walter Scott,
"The Pirate")
Synonym:
Roger.
Etymology:
1) Probably from "jolly" + the
name Roger.
2) The second theory is that it comes from
the French term "joli rouge",
which the English corrupted into "Jolly
Roger". This may be likely as there
were a series of "red flags" that were
feared as much, or more, than "black flags".
The origin of the red flag is likely that English
privateers flew the red jack by
order of the Admiralty in 1694. When the War of
Spanish Succession ended in 1714, many privateers
turned to piracy and some retained the red flag,
for red symbolized blood. No matter how much seamen
dreaded the black pirate standard all prayed they
never encountered the jolie rouge.
This red flag boldly declared the pirates' intentions.
No life would be spared. No quarter given. The
term was subsequently used for the black flag
with skull and bones which appeared in use around
1700.
3) There is another theory, also using
"jolie rouge" as the origin
for the name. Apparently a Catholic order of fierce
warrior monks, known as the "Poor Soldiers
of Christ and the Temple of Solomon", first
used the "jolie rouge",
the red flag. The link between the monks and pirates
is provided by the fact that they were fighting
for their cause on the open seas, effectively
becoming pirates. In combat practice many merchants
were surprised when a fast ship changed a fellow
national flag for the more portentuous Jolly
Roger, which was the desired effect.
4) Another theory proposes that the leader
of a group of Asian pirates was entitled Ali
Raja, "king of sea", English pirates
appropriated and corrupted the term. A further
theory is that the name may derive from the English
word "roger", meaning a wandering
vagabond: "Old Roger"
was a term for the devil.
History:
The Jolly Roger is the traditional
flag of European and American pirates, envisioned
today as a skull over crossed bones on a black
field. However, there were many variations and
additional emblems on actual Jolly Rogers.
Calico Jack Rackham and Thomas Tew
used variations with swords. Edward
Teach (a.k.a. Blackbeard) used
a skeleton holding an hourglass
in one hand and a spear or dart
in the other while standing beside a bleeding
heart. Bartholomew Roberts (a.k.a.
Black Bart) had two variations:
a man and a skeleton, who held a
spear or dart in one hand, holding
either an hourglass or a cup while
toasting death or an armed man standing
on two skulls over the letters ABH
and AMH (a warning to residents of Barbados
and Martinique that death awaited them).
Dancing skeletons signified that the pirates
cared little for their fate. Black flag with skull
and crossbones is also the flag of chetniks
(see).
Contemporary submariners of the British and Australian
navies use the flag, more as an indicator of bravado
and stealth than lawlessness. By tradition Royal
Navy submarines returning to base after a
"kill" fly the jolly roger
while entering port.
Flying the Jolly Roger (too early)
as the only flag has its drawbacks. Warships were
often under standing orders to fire at will at
a ship flying this flag.
the eleventh hour
- eleventh
hour
- eleventh
- hour
- last
minute
- last
- minute
The last minute, last possible moment for doing
something (before it is too late); just
before the absolute deadline.
Examples:
1) The doctor arrived at the eleventh
hour, right before Mrs. Bernstein gave birth to
her baby.
2) At the eleventh hour, just seconds
before the curtain rose, Sybil finished painting
the scenery.
Synonym: last minute Etymology:
This idiom comes from the Bible. The eleventh
hour is the last hour before the end of the
world. In the Bible, it was the last hour
of sunlight with the twelfth hour bringing darkness.
Some people delay so much, they sometimes
finish a project at the last minute, or even the
last second, just before the deadline passes.
the love of money is
the root of all evil
- love of money is the root of all evil
- money is the root of all evil
- money
- root
- all
- evil
- love
This proverb means that greed for money can sometimes
motivate people to do things that they wouldn't
otherwise do.
Example:
"Mrs. Alvarado, it says here that some factories
dump poisonous waste into rivers. Don't they care
about wildlife and the people who use the water?"
Bill's teacher explained, "It's cheaper to
dump the waste than to dispose of it safely.
Some factories care more about their profits than
they do about rivers."
"No wonder people say money is the root of
all evil," Bill mused.
Etymology:
These words are written in the Bible:
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds
of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered
from the faith and pierced themselves with many
griefs."
(New Testament, 1 Timothy 6:10)
the proof of the pudding
is in the eating
- proof of the pudding is in the eating
- proof of the pudding is in eating
- the proof of the pudding
- proof of the pudding
- the proof is in the pudding
- proof is in the pudding
- proof
- pudding
- eating
The proverb literally says that you won't know
whether food has been cooked properly until you
try it; generally speaking, you can't judge something
until you try it; don't assume that something
is in order or believe what you are told, but
judge the matter by testing it.
Example:
"Zach told me the new space adventure movie
is great," said Lydia.
"Well, I usually don't like the same movies
he does," Seth answered. "But the proof
of
the pudding is in the eating. Let's go see it
tonight."
Synonyms:
seeing is believing; actions speak louder than
words.
Etymology:
The proverb is ancient - it has been traced back
to 1300 and was popularised by Cervantes
in his "Don Quixote" of 1605.
Modern synonyms:
the proof is in the pudding; the proof of the
pudding
Example:
While the team's first Super Bowl victory back
in 2002 could be explained away by some skeptics
as a fluke, the second victory is the proof in
the pudding in cementing the Pats' status as the
cream of the NFL crop. ("Boston Herald",
3 February 2004)
NB.
The versions given as synonyms appear with increasing
frequency in books and newspapers. Such examples
can be found in American newspapers at least as
far back as the 1920s and it became relatively
common from the middle 1950s onwards. Slightly
different versions also turn up from time to time,
such as this about a charity considering its links
with Michael Jackson, "Until there's some
proof in the pudding, we will continue to remain
neutral" (The "Grand Rapids Press",
30 November 2003), and about an election in
Canada, "I guess that the proof in the pudding
will be on Oct. 2" ("Toronto Star",
29 September 2003). The principal trouble
with "the proof is in the pudding"
is that it makes no sense. What has happened is
that writers half-remember the proverb as "the
proof of the pudding", which is also
unintelligible unless you know the full form from
which the tag was taken, and have modified it
in various ways in unsuccessful attempts to turn
it into something sensible. They wouldn't make
this mistake if they knew two important facts.
The full proverb is "the proof of the
pudding is in the eating" and "proof"
has the sense of "test" (as it
also has, or used to have, in "the exception
proves the rule" and in phrases such as "printer's
proof").
the real McCoy
- real
McCoy
- real
- McCoy
- the
real Mackay
- real
Mackay
- Mackay
- the
McCoy
1. The genuine thing.
Example:
That painting's not a reproduction - it's the
real McCoy.
Synonyms:
real thing, real stuff, the McCoy
Etymology:
There are at least half a dozen theories that
argue that one of the myriad McCoys of America
at the end of the nineteenth century is the genuinely
real McCoy that led to this common
expression. Its origin is unclear. Was it perhaps:
Elijah McCoy, who invented a machine to
lubricate the moving parts of a railway locomotive?
The famous Hatfield-McCoy family feud that
enlivened the West Virginia-Kentucky border in
the 1880s?
A famous cattle baron of that name?
A Prohibition-era rum-runner named Bill McCoy?
The real Macao, pure heroin imported from
the Far East?
From the name of the American boxer Norman Selby,
known as Kid McCoy, who was welterweight
champion from 1898-1900?
There is broad agreement among a lot of writers
that this last one is the true origin. It is said
that McCoy had so many imitators
who took his name in boxing booths in small towns
throughout the country that eventually he had
to bill himself as Kid 'The Real' McCoy,
and the phrase stuck. There's another anecdote
in which a sceptical drunk who met the boxer in
a bar denied he was the real article with such
force that McCoy was forced to hit him.
After recovering the drunk said, 'It's the
real McCoy!' But there's no evidence whatsoever
for the imitators or the drunk.
There's plenty of evidence, however, for suggesting
that the original McCoy was actually a
Mackay. The earliest example is from 1856,
recorded in the "Scottish National Dictionary":
'A drappie [drop] o' the real MacKay'. The same
work says that in 1870 the slogan was adopted
by Messrs G Mackay and Co, whisky distillers
of Edinburgh. That would most likely explain the
first instance of the expression in the "Oxford
English Dictionary", which records a
letter written by the author Robert Louis Stevenson
in 1883: 'He's the real Mackay'. Certainly
early references are to a drop of the hard stuff.
And some other examples also point towards this
Scottish origin. "A Rock in the Baltic",
by Robert Barr, dated 1906, has: 'I shouldn't
have taken the liberty of introducing him to you
as Prince Lermontoff if he were not, as we say
in Scotland, a real Mackay - the genuine article'.
And from Australia, Andrew 'Banjo' Paterson
wrote in "An Outback Marriage",
also published in 1906: ''We brought a drop o'
rum,' replied Charlie. 'Ha! That'll do. That's
the real Mackay,' said the veteran, slouching
along at a perceptibly quicker gait'.
It looks very much as though the term was originally
the real Mackay, but became converted to
the real McCoy in the US, either under
the influence of Kid McCoy, or for some
other reason.
2. An influential European dance music
group (formerly known as "M.C. Sar &
the Real McCoy") whose career was at
its peak in the early 1990s. Their 1993 single
"Another Night" achieved great success
around the world.
the runs
Diarrhea; the need to go to the bathroom.
Example: I have the runs. I must have eaten
some bad food.
the three R's
The three basic skills from school - reading,
(w)riting, (a)rithmetic.
Examples:
1) Many people believe that teaching
the three R's is the most important role for schools.
2) A child's education begins with
the three R's.
the ugly stick
A magical piece of wood that makes people ugly.
Example: Who hit that dude with the ugly
stick?
Etymology: This humorous and slightly cruel
phrase suggests that there is reason that ugly
people are ugly.
theriac
- catholicon
- elixir
- nostrum
- panacea
- theriac
- cure-all
- cure
[THEER-ee-ak]
1. A mixture of many drugs and honey formerly
held to be an antidote to poison.
2. Cure-all.
Example:
Garlic has been called the poor man's theriac.
History, synonyms, related words:
There really is no such thing as a single remedy
for all that ails us. But that hasn't kept English
speakers from creating, not just a single word,
but several words, that mean "cure-all"
- "catholicon," "elixir,"
"nostrum," "panacea,"
and today's word, "theriac."
When we first used "theriac,"
it meant "an antidote for poison" -
for any and all poisons, that is. That's how our
Roman and Greek forebears used their "theriaca"
and "theriake," which derive
ultimately from the Greek word for "wild
animal." The first theriac
was supposedly created by the first-century Greek
physician Andromachus, whose concoction
consisted of some 70 drugs pulverized with honey.
Medieval physicians created even more elaborate
theriacs to dose a plague-dreading
populace, for whom the possibility of a cure-all
didn't seem too wild a notion at all.
think factory
a company that does research for hire and issues
reports on the implications
Synonym: think tank
think outside the box
- think
- outside
the box
- outside
- box
To think creatively; to approach a situation or
problem in a new way.
Examples:
1) To solve this problem, we're
going to have to think outside the box. 2)
I like to hire people who can think outside the
box.
Etymology:
This popular phrase is relatively recent. 'The
box' refers to the normal, boring way
of doing things. When you think 'outside
the box', you create new ideas and methods
for doing things.
think tank
1. A group of experts that enters to debate a
certain topic.
2. A company that does research for hire and issues
reports on the implications; think factory; something
like a Soviet scientific research institution
- an institution filled with brainy people who
are paid to use their brains.
Synonym: think factory
3. People thinking together; brain storm.
Think tanks can be used in any subject
from the hard sciences to political science.
Example: Our company think tank will solve
the problem.
think twice
To weigh something carefully.
Example: I'd think twice before spending
all that money on clothes.
thku & ta4n
(SMS) Thank you and that's all for now!
three sixes
The Number of the Beast (666) (Revelation 13:18)
threnody
[THREN-uh-dee]
A song of lamentation for the dead.
Synonym: elegy
Example:
In the opera's final scene, the leading lady sings
a threnody to mourn the murdered king.
Etymology, more examples, related words:
"Threnody" encompasses
all genres. There are great threnodies in prose
(such as the lines from Charles Dickens' "Bleak
House" upon the death of Little Jo: "Dead,
your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead..."),
in poetry (as in W.H. Auden's "Funeral
Blues": "The stars are not wanted now:
put out every one, / Pack up the moon and dismantle
the sun..."), and in music (Giovanni
Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater", for
one). "Threnody," which
we borrowed from the Greek word "threnoidia"
(from "threnos," the word for
"dirge"), has survived in English since
the early 1600s. "Melody" and
"tragedy" are related to "threnody"
through the Greek root that forms their ending
- "aeidein," which means "to
sing." By the same token, "comedy"
is related as well.
through thick and thin
People use this phrase to describe someone or
something that remains dependable during good
and bad times.
Example: Malek and James were best friends.
They stuck together and stood up for each other,
knowing they could count on each other
through thick and thin.
throw in the towel
To quit.
Examples:
1) The company threw in the towel
after losing all of its major customers. 2)
Mike 'Boom Boom' DeNola threw in the towel after
three rounds. He'll probably have to spend a few
days in the hospital, followed by a long convalescence
in Miami.
Etymology:
This phrase comes from boxing. When a boxer is
too beat up to continue, his coach throws a towel
into the ring to signal that the fight is over.
throw smb. a fish
Etymology: If you have ever been to an
aquatic part, you will see seal, or dolphins or
other water creatures performing tricks. When
the creature successfully performs a trick, the
trainer will throw it a fish (a small reward for
successfully performing).
Definition:
In common usage, it means to give someone a minimum
for doing something.
throw the book at
- throw
the book at smb.
- throw
the book
- throw
- book
1. To impose a severe penalty on someone;
to give the maximum penalty for a crime.
2. To quarrel with someone and treat them
harshly.
Examples:
1) His crime was so cruel and inhumane
that they threw the book at him. 2)
The judge told my lawyer that he is going to throw
the book at me unless I beg the court for mercy.
Etymology:
'The book' is the entire collection
of laws and penalties. If a judge were to 'throw'
or hurl the whole book of laws at someone, it
would probably hurt quite a bit.
thumb generation
- thumb
- generation
- thumb
tribe
- tribe
The generation of under 25s for the beginning
of the 21st century, because of its extensive
use of their thumb for text messaging and gaming
consoles.
Synonym: thumb tribe
Example:
Japanese youth even refer to themselves as "oya
yubi sedai" - the thumb generation, or thumb
tribe and they have started to point or press
doorbells with their thumbs instead of their index
fingers.
History:
The thumb generation has been explored by Dr.
Sadie Plant. "The fact that our thumbs
operate differently from our fingers is one of
the main things that defines us as humans. Discovering
that the younger generation has taken to using
thumbs in a completely different way and are instinctively
using it where the rest of us use our index fingers
is particularly interesting," explains Dr.
Plant.
ticker
The heart.
Example: Try not to upset Grandpa when
you're talking to him. He has a bad ticker.
Etymology: Your heart beats regularly,
like a clock. In English, a clock makes the sound
'tick tock, tick tock'.
tie the knot
- get
hitched
- get
- hitched
- tie
- knot
- hitch
To get married.
Examples:
1) The happy couple tied the knot in Las Vegas.
2) Valentine's Day is the perfect time to ask
your honey to tie the knot.
Etymology: Marriage forms a strong connection
between man and wife, like a knot joining two
strings.
Synonym: get hitched.
tightie whities
- tightie
whitie
- tighty
whities
- tightey
whiteys
- tightey
whitey
- tightie
- whities
- whity
- tighty
- tightey
- whitie
- whitey
- briefs
- brief
Men's underwear; bikini-like underwear that clings
to the body.
Example:
Which do you prefer, tightie whities or boxer
shorts?
Etymology:
This term is used to describe the type of small,
tight underwear some men wear, as opposed to the
larger, looser kind called 'boxers'. Synonym:
briefs
till the cows come home
- untill
the cows come home
- till
- cow
- come
- home
Etymology and definition:
Cows come home to the barn from the fields at
the end of a long day. So this expression has
come to mean that something won't happen "for
an extremely long time".
Example:
"Herman, you've been studying all day,"
Cora said. "When are you going to take a
break?"
"No time soon. I'm going to get an 'A' on
my test if I have to study till the cows come
home!" he replied.
timeless
[TYME-luss]
1. Having no beginning or end.
Synonym: eternal
2. Not restricted to a particular time
or date.
3. Not affected by time.
Synonym: ageless
Example:
Fashion experts agree that the little black dress
worn with a strand of pearls is timeless.
History:
Everyone seems to know what time is, but what
does it mean to be "timeless"
- that is, "without time"? At one time
(the 16th-19th centuries), "timeless"
meant "out of its proper time, untimely,
premature." In the course of time (by the
17th century), the word came to mean "eternal;
lasting through all time." The two modern
senses given in our definition were added just
in time for the 20th century.
timorous
[TIM-uh-russ]
1. Full of apprehensiveness; timid; of
a timid disposition; expressing or suggesting
timidity. 2. Indicating, or caused
by, fear; fearful.
Examples:
1) Matthew was too timorous to stand
up to the no-good electronics salesman who ripped
him off.
2) Girls, allegedly so timorous
and lacking in confidence, now outnumber boys
in student government, in honor societies, on
school newspapers, and even in debating clubs.
(Christina Hoff Sommers, The War Against Boys)
3) Some men by the unalterable frame
of their constitutions, are stout, others timorous,
some confident, others modest. (John Locke,
"Some Thoughts Concerning Education")4)
The way we are living, timorous or bold, will
have been our life. (Seamus Heaney, "Elegy")
Etymology, related words, examples:
"Timid" and "timorous"
don't just have similar spellings and meanings;
they are etymologically related as well. Both
words ultimately derive from the Latin verb "timere,"
meaning "to fear." The immediate ancestor
of "timid" ("shy,
bashful, fearful, retiring") is Latin "timidus"
(same meaning as "timid"),
whereas "timorous" traveled
to Middle English by way of the Latin noun "timor"
("fear") and the Medieval Latin adjective
"timorosus." "Timid"
may be the more common of the two words, but "timorous"
is older. It first appeared in English in the
mid-15th century; "timid"
came on the scene a century later. Both words
can mean "easily frightened" (as
in "a timid mouse" or "a
timorous child") as well as "indicating
or characterized by fear" (as
in "gave a timid smile" or "took
a timorous step forward").
tin-pot
- Tinhorn
- tin
lizzie
- tin
lizzy
- tin
- lizzy
- pot
- lizzie
- tin
pan
- pan
[TIN-POT]
Two-bit, small-time.
Example:
Petty despots and tin-pot dictators often pay
lip service to democratic ideals to give their
regimes an aura of legitimacy.
History, related words:
Tin has never commanded as much respect
as some other metals. As a reflection of this,
its name has long been used in terms denoting
the tawdry or petty. "Tin-pot"
has been used for minor or insignificant things
or people since the early 1800s. "Tinhorn"
has named fakes or frauds (especially gamblers)
since the 1880s, and "tin lizzie"
has been a nickname for an inexpensive car since
Ford introduced the Model T. Another
example is "tin pan" (as
in "Tin Pan Alley"), which referred
to the tinny sound of pianos pounded furiously
by musicians plugging tunes to producers.
tintinnabulation
[tin-tih-nab-yuh-LAY-shuhn]
1. The ringing or sounding of bells.
2. A jingling or tinkling sound
as if of bells
Examples:
1) One found oneself immersed in
the infinitely nuanced tintinnabulations of clapping
cymbal rhythms passed from one player to the next,
in the barely audible, rain-like patter of drums
that suddenly grew into an overwhelming mechanical
onslaught. (Tim Page, "From Japan, The
Thundering Drums of Kodo," Newsday, February
24, 1995)
2) The best man's toast to the bride
and groom ended with the customary tintinnabulation
of a hundred clinking champagne glasses.
Etymology, more examples:
If "tintinnabulation"
rings a bell, that may be because it traces to
a Latin interpretation of the sound a ringing
bell makes. "Tintinnabulation"
derives from Latin "tintinnabulum"
("a bell") from "tintinnare",
from "tinnire" - "to ring,
clang, or jingle".
Like the English terms "ting"
and "tinkle," "tintinnare"
originated with a vocal imitation of the sound
associated with it - that is, it is onomatopoeic.
Edgar Allan Poe celebrates the sonic overtones
of "tintinnabulation"
in his poem "The Bells," which
includes lines about "the tintinnabulation
that so musically wells / From the bells, bells,
bells, bells, / Bells, bells, bells -- / From
the jingling and the tinkling of the bells."
tirade
A long angry speech; a violent denunciation; a
prolonged outburst full of censure or abuse.
Examples:
1) The force of this tirade made
Matthew glance nervously at Coots, who shrugged
and asked his partner, "You just about all
through?" (Trevanian, "Incident at
Twenty-Mile")
2) Bobby wanted to enquire further,
but knew better; more questions were apt to set
off a tirade. (Stephen King, "Hearts In
Atlantis")
3) He was likeable, had panache,
and his contemptuous tirades were rarely taken
at face value. (Michael Schaller, "Altered
States")
Etymology:
"Tirade" comes from French,
from Italian "tirada", properly,
"a pulling"; hence, "a lengthening
out, a long speech, a tirade," from "tirare"
("to pull, to draw").
titivate
[TIT-uh-vayt]
To smarten up; to spruce up.
Examples:
1) It's easy to laugh at a book
in which the heroine's husband says to her, "You
look beautiful," and then adds, "So
stop titivating yourself." (Joyce Cohen,
review of "To Be the Best", by Barbara
Taylor Bradford, "New York Times", July
31, 1988)
2) In The Idle Class, when Chaplin
is titivating in a hotel room, the cloth on his
dressing table rides up and down, caught in the
same furious gusts. (Peter Conrad, "Modern
Times, Modern Places")
Etymology, related words:
"Titivate" is perhaps
from "tidy" + the quasi-Latin
ending "-vate". When the word
originally came into the language, it was written
"tidivate" or "tiddivate".
The noun form is "titivation".
tlk2me
(SMS) talk to me
tmesis
[TMEE-sis]
Also: Timesis
In grammar and rhetoric, the separation of the
parts of a compound word into parts by inserting
one or more words in the middle; now it is generally
done for humorous effect; for example,
"abso-bloody-lutely."
Examples:
1) If on the first, how heinous
e'er it be, To win thy after-love I pardon thee.
(Shakespeare, "Richard II")
2) His income-tax return, he remarked,
was the "most rigged-up marole" he'd
ever seen. (Frederic Packard)
3) In two words, im possible. (Samuel
Goldwyn)
4) There are few pleasures on TV
to equal QI (BBC2), in which Stephen Fry pours
erudition liberally over insubordinate comics
like honey on waffles. It is pure tmesis which,
he explained, was the splitting of a word to include
another, as in abso-blooming-lutely wonderful.
("The Guardian", 3rd October 2003)
History, more examples:
"Tmesis" is from Greek
"tmesis" ("a cutting"),
from "temnein" ("to cut").
An often quoted original example of "tmesis"
is the splitting of the word in Shakespeare's
"Richard II": "If on
the first, how heinous e'er it be, To win thy
after-love I pardon thee".
"Tmesis" is a long-established
word in English which has remained relatively
obscure, though it refers to the well-known creative
process of splitting existing words and placing
others in between. This is a productive process
of word formation, often also described by theoretical
linguists as infixation,
but used specifically for the purpose of adding
emphasis. Conventional definitions of tmesis
refer to the division of compound words, like,
for instance, the splitting of "whatsoever"
in "what place soever" or "what
man soever". However, there is plenty
of current evidence for tmesis occurring
in not just compound words but also between morphemes
(word components) with analysable meaning, as
in "im-bloody-possible", and
even purely between syllables as in "abso-blooming-lutely".
"Abso-blooming-lutely" was first
famously used by the character Eliza Doolittle
in George Bernard Shaw's classic play
"Pygmalion" (1916), but the use
of tmesis has been revisited in
recent years in the language of fictional characters
such as David Brent in the BBC comedy series
"The Office", or Rachel
in the UK television drama series "Cold
Feet", who popularised the use of "fan-bloody-tastic".
Modern use of tmesis is almost exclusively
confined to the infixation of expletives
such as "blooming, bloody or worse!".
"Tmesis" normally occurs
in words that have three or more syllables, and
the infixed word generally occurs before the syllable
which bears the stress, hence "fan-bloody-tastic"
rather than "fantas-bloody-tic".
tocsin
[TOCK-sin]
1. An alarm bell, or the ringing
of a bell for the purpose of alarm.
2. A warning.
Examples:
1) Some of the allegations put round
are so frenzied, however, that some caution should
be exercised before the tocsin is rung too loudly.
("New President of the NUS," Times (London),
April 10, 1969)
2) The first atomic bomb fell and
its radioactive cloud became a tocsin for mankind.
(Herbert Mitgang, "The Bomb as Horror
and Warning," New York Times, August 1, 1990)
3) But Mr. Beckett is wise in choosing
the form of the myth in which to sound his tocsin
on the condition of human society. (Brooks Atkinson,
"Beckett's 'Endgame,'" New York Times,
January 29, 1958)
Etymology:
"Tocsin" derives from
Medieval French "touquesain", from Old
Proven?al "tocasenh", from "tocar"
("to touch, to strike, to ring a bell")
+ "senh" ("church bell"),
ultimately from Latin "signum"
("sign, signal").
toe the line
- tow
the line
- toe
the mark
- Toe
the crack
- Toe
the scratch
- toe
the trig
- trig
- scratch
- crack
- toe
- line
- tow
- mark
to meet a standard; to abide by the rules
Example: The new director will make us
toe the line, I'm sure.
Etymology:
The image is that of men lining up with the tips
of their toes touching some line. They might be
on parade, or preparing to undertake some task,
or in readiness for a race or fight. The earliest
recorded form is dated 1813, in a book by Hector
Bull-Us (a pseudonym, you will not be surprised
to hear, in this case of James Kirke Paulding)
with the title "The Diverting History
of John Bull and Brother Jonathan". This
already had the modern figurative sense of conforming
to the usual standards or rules: "He began
to think it was high time to toe the mark".
Many early examples are from the British Navy,
which is where it may have originated.
Synonyms:
It's correctly "toe the line",
but it is indeed often seen as "tow
the line", an error that's all too
easy to make when in a hurry. In this case, the
association of ideas between "tow" and
"line" (in the sense of a rope) is often
too powerful to overcome, and the lack of any
clear mental image of where it comes from is a
contributing factor. "Toe the crack"
is an American form of the 1820s in reference
to a crack in the floorboards that delineates
a straight line. "Toe the scratch"
is from prize fighting, where "scratch"
was the line drawn across the ring (often in the
earth of an informal outdoor ring) to which the
fighters were brought ready for the contest -
it's a close relative of "to come up to
scratch". In "toe the trig",
"trig" is an old term for a boundary
or centre line in various sports.
Also, "toe the mark".
tog
[TAHG]
To dress especially in fine clothing (usually
used with up or out).
Example:
She smiled as she took pictures of her teenage
son, who was togged out in a tuxedo and standing
next to his prom date.
Etymology:
The history of "tog" is
truly a rags-to-riches tale that begins with the
slang of vagabonds and thieves - specifically,
with the noun "togeman"
("togman"), an old (and
now obsolete) slang word meaning "cloak."
By the early 18th century, the noun "tog,"
a shortened form of "togeman,"
was being used as a slang word for "coat,"
and before the century's end the plural form "togs"
was being used to mean "clothing." The
verb "tog" debuted shortly
after "togs" and was immediately
in style as a word for dressing up. "Togeman"
is believed to be derived in part from "toga,"
which means "cloak" or "mantle"
in Latin.
togethering
(n) Vacationing with one's extended family
or friends.
Examples:
1) Those surveyed plan to take more
vacation time at home this year as there continues
to be an emphasis on family after the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Yesawich said. Eight
in 10 respondents said they planned to vacation
with extended family or friends, a trend called
"togethering" that is on the increase,
he said. (John Yantis, "Majority of Travelers
Look for Deals on Internet, Arizona Travel Expert
Says", East Valley Tribune (Mesa, Arizona),
May 25, 2004)
2) Among a hundred other statistics,
the peppy marketing group, led by the irrepressible
Cami Mattson, reported that, in the last five
years, eight out of 10 travelers took at least
one vacation with extended family or friends.
More and more, Americans are vacationing in a
loving gang, it seems. This trend toward mob bonding
is called "togethering," a novel word
to my ear. (Logan Jenkins, "North County
the spot for `togethering'", The San Diego
Union-Tribune, April 29, 2004)
3) The 105th Nickerson Family Association
Togethering will be held Sept. 6-8 in Dennis-on-Cape
Cod. ("Reunions", Portland Press
Herald (Portland, Maine), June 12, 2002)
History:
The word "togethering"
in this sense was unleashed upon the world in
an October, 2003 press release from Walt Disney
World announcing the company's "Magical
Gatherings" program. The term has been trademarked
by the travel marketing firm "Yesawich,
Pepperdine, Brown & Russell", with
a filing date in the U.S. of November 4, 2003.
However, neither Walt Disney World nor YPBR invented
the term, with the earliest citation for this
sense coming in 2002 and the word itself having
been around since at least the 1985 release of
the album "Togethering"
by jazz musicians Kenny Burrell and Grover
Washington, Jr.
tomacco
Etymology & Meaning:
a hybrid of tomato and tobacco; tomatoes crossed
with tobacco.
Example:
Tomacco, a hybrid created by grafting a tomato
plant onto the roots of a tobacco plant, really
exists!
tomcat
A male who enjoys the favors of many women.
Etymology: The expression comes from a
book written in the mid-1700s in England called
'The Life and Adventures of a Cat'. The
"hero" of the book, a male cat who enjoyed
the favors of many female cats, was named Tom.
tomfoolery
1. Something trivial or foolish;
silliness, nonsense.
2. Foolish or senseless behavior.
Synonyms: folly, foolery
Examples:
1) Of course, my tomfoolery might
compromise her; yet certain other feelings and
desires had begun to form themselves in my brain.
(Dostoyevsky F. "The Gambler")
2) "We have had enough of this
tomfoolery," he said scornfully. (Oppenheim
E. Ph. "The Malefactor")
History:
The word "tomfoolery"
derives from Middle English Thom Foole.
In the 14th century the name denoted "the
stupid man personified." By the 19th century,
the given and surnames had been fused into an
noun denoting any type of stupidity.
tontine
[TAHN-teen]
1. A joint financial arrangement whereby the participants
usually contribute equally to a prize that is
awarded entirely to the participant who survives
all the others; a system for division of annuity
between members of a group.
2. A form of life insurance whereby on the death
or default of a participant his share is distributed
to the remaining members 3. An annuity scheme
wherein participants share certain benefits and
on the death of any participant his benefits are
redistributed among the remaining participants;
can run for a fixed period of time or until the
death of all but one participant.
Examples:
1. When all the participants in the tontine but
one were murdered, you can guess who the primary
suspect was.
2. Too many of the financiers by professions are
apt to see nothing in revenue but banks, and circulations,
and annuities on lives, and tontines, and perpetual
rents, and all the small wares of the shop.
History:
Fr., from It. "tontina". Tontines
were named after their creator, a Neapolitan banker
named Lorenzo Tonti. In 1653, Tonti
convinced investors to buy shares in a fund he
had created. Each year, the investors earned dividends,
and when one of them died, his or her share of
the profits was redistributed among the survivors.
When the last investor died, the capital reverted
to the state. Louis XIV of France used tontines
to save his ailing treasury and to fund
municipal projects, and private tontines
(where the last surviving investor - and
subsequently his or her heirs - got the cash instead
of the state) became popular throughout Europe
and the U.S. Eventually, though, tontines
were banned; there was just too much temptation
for unscrupulous investors to bump off their fellow
subscribers.
too hot to handle
Difficult; hard to deal with; controversial.
Examples:
1) The editor thought the story
about the president's girlfriend was too hot to
handle, so he refused to print it. 2) The
line drive was too hot to handle, and the Phillies
scored on the play.
Etymology:
"Too hot to handle" comes
from baseball, referring to a ball hit so hard
that it can't be caught. In this phrase, "hot"
means "lively" or "powerful",
and "handle" means "take
care of" or "pick up". The phrase
is now used to describe any situation that is
hard to deal with or problematic.
tooth and nail
In every way, by all means; with force and ferocity.
Example:
She fought tooth and nail.
toothing
- toother
- zipless
- flirtberrying
1. The act or process of indenting or furnishing
with teeth; 2. (Masonry) bricks
alternately projecting at the end of a wall, in
order that they may be bonded into a continuation
of it when the remainder is carried up; 3.
Plane; a plane of which the iron is formed
into a series of small teeth, for the purpose
of roughening surfaces, as of veneers;
Example:
The replaceable blade has peg toothing and gives
a smooth cut in green and dry wood. ("Do
It Yourself". Milton Keynes: Link House Magazines
Ltd, 1992)
4. The next step on from "bluejacking"
(see), in which passers-by send unexpected
and anonymous text messages to your PDA or mobile
phone; a media hoax claiming that Bluetooth-enabled
mobile phones were being used to arrange sexual
encounters.
Synonym: flirtberrying
Etymology, history:
Toothing practitioners are called
"toothers", both words
being formed from "Bluetooth"
(see), the wireless system that
connects mobile devices together. It's the next
step on from "bluejacking" (see),
in which passers-by send unexpected and anonymous
text messages to your PDA or mobile phone. Now
people are sending messages to set up illicit
romantic interludes. You give your Bluetooth device
a suggestive name that indicates you're open for
offers. Another user sees this, and sends a message
that invites you to join them briefly in some
nearby place of concealment. I.e., those who engage
in the activity, beam phone numbers or simply
the message 'toothing?' between
handsets in places such as bars, restaurants and
train stations. From here, they use conventional
text messaging to organise their meeting place
and what they want from the encounter. A very
novel way to arrange a date without any of that
awkward 'breaking-the-ice' stuff!
Back in 1973, Erica Jong famously described such
encounters as "zipless",
but she didn't have a mobile phone to facilitate
them.
toothsome
1. Pleasing to the taste; as,
"a toothsome pie"; of palatable flavor
and pleasing texture.
Synonym: delicious; toothy
2. Agreeable; attractive; as,
"a toothsome offer."
3. Sexually attractive.
Examples:
1) Fleming was impressed not only
by its taste but by its astonishing durability:
Caudle's apple, after ten months in storage, was
still toothsome and fragrant. (David Guterson,
"The Kingdom of Apples," Harper's Magazine,
October 1999)
2) Their topic, naturally: business
niches that offer toothsome opportunities and
comparatively limited competition. (Dick Youngblood,
"Business niches can be opportunities,"
Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 2, 2003)
3) The myth, which Kournikova herself
often takes great measures to perpetuate, is that
she is an imposter on the WTA Tour, a toothsome
starlet who simply uses the tennis court as a
catwalk. (Jon Wertheim, "Any day now for
Anna," Sports Illustrated, April 14, 2000)
4) The restaurant offers a wide
variety of toothsome desserts, my favorite being
a positively scrumptious chocolate torte topped
with raspberry coulis.
Etymology:
One meaning of "tooth"
is "a fondness or taste for something specified,
a liking". "Toothsome"
comes from this definition of "tooth"
plus the suffix "-some", meaning
"characterized by". Although "toothsome"
was at first used to describe general attractiveness,
it quickly developed a second sense that was specific
to the sense of taste (perhaps because from as
far back as Chaucer's time, "tooth"
could also refer specifically to eating and the
sense of taste). In addition, "toothsome"
is now showing signs of acquiring a third sense,
"toothy" (as in "a
toothsome grin"), but this sense is not yet
established enough.
topic of the day
today's subject
Example:
The broadcast is of informational-analytical character
and represents a summery of head issues and news
subjects in live, though the discussion of a topic
of the day is conducted an invited guest in the
studio.
toppler
1. A small glass for one gulp.
2. A kind of a mine car to get the coal
up the shaft and topple it down.
torpid
[TOR-pid] 1. Having lost motion
or the power of exertion and feeling; numb;
benumbed. 2. Dormant; hibernating or
estivating. 3. Dull; sluggish; apathetic.
Examples:
1) Canary Islanders are citizens
of Spain, but geography asserts itself from time
to time, as a reminder that this land will always
be Africa's: the trade winds get interrupted by
strong gusts from the east that bring hot dust
and sometimes even torpid, wind-buffeted locusts.
(Barbara Kingsolver, "Where the Map Stopped",
New York Times, May 17, 1992)
2) For more than twenty years--all
my adult life--I have lived here: my great weight
sunk, torpid in the heat, into this sagged chair
on my rooftop patio. (Peggy Payne, "Sister
India")
3) Some animals became torpid in
winter, others were torpid in summer. (Ralph
Waldo Emerson, "The Conduct of Life")
4) The debacle over signatures has
roused the normally politically torpid Mayor,
who dislikes pressing the flesh. (Jan Cienski,
"Petition bungle robs Mayor of spot on ballot",
National Post, July 30, 2002)
5) It is a man's own fault . . .
if his mind grows torpid in old age. (Samuel
Johnson, quoted in James Boswell's "Life
of Samuel Johnson")
torrid
1. parched with heat especially of the
sun
Synonym: hot
2. ardent, passionate
Example:
As she cleaned out the attic, Monica was shocked
to find a box filled with torrid love letters
that her grandfather had written to her grandmother.
Etymology:
"Torrid" derives from
the Latin verb "torrere", which
means "to burn" or "to parch"
and is an ancestor of our word "toast".
Despite the dry implications of this root, it
is also an ancestor of "torrent",
which can refer to a violent stream of liquid
(as in "a torrent of rain"). "Torrid"
first appeared in English in the 16th century,
and was originally used to describe something
burned or scorched by exposure to the sun. The
term "torrid zone" later
came about to refer to tropical regions of the
Earth. By the end of that century the word had
taken on the extended meaning that we know today
- suggesting fiery passion.
tortuous
[TOR-chuh-wus]
1. Marked by repeated twists, bends, or
turns; winding.
2. Marked by devious or indirect
tactics; crooked, tricky; circuitous, involved
Example:
The road over the mountains was long and dangerously
tortuous.
History, related words, difference, examples:
Be careful not to confuse "tortuous"
with "torturous." These
two words are relatives, and both ultimately come
from the Latin verb "torquere,"
which means "to twist," "to wind,"
or "to wrench," but "tortuous"
means "winding" or "crooked,"
whereas "torturous" means
"painfully unpleasant." Something "tortuous"
(such as a twisting mountain road)
might also be "torturous"
(if, for example, you have to ride up that
road on a bicycle!), but that doesn't make these
words synonyms. The twists and turns that mark
a tortuous thing can be literal
("a tortuous path" or "a
tortuous river") or figurative
("a tortuous argument" or
"a tortuous explanation"), but you
should consider choosing a different descriptive
term if no implication of winding or crookedness
is present.
torture lite
torture short of bodily harm.
Example:
Fears that US will use 'torture lite' on al-Qaida
No 3. (Duncan Campbell, "The Guardian",
Wednesday March 5, 2003)
tourbillion
[toor-BILL-yun]
1. Whirlwind.
2. A vortex, especially of
a whirlwind or whirlpool.
Example:
In the history of any art there are unexpected
eddies and tourbillions. (C. B. Cox, "The
Twentieth-Century Mind")
History, more meanings:
"Tourbillion" comes from
the same root as "turbine" -
namely, the Latin word "turbo,"
meaning "top" (as in a
spinning object) or "whirlwind." "Tourbillion"
has been used over time to refer to other spinning
objects besides an actual whirlwind. Among watchmaking
enthusiasts, "tourbillion"
is the name of a kind of watch with a mechanism
designed to compensate for the effects of gravity
on its movement. Among pyrotechnics fans, a tourbillion
is a kind of firework having a spiral flight.
The variety of meanings for "tourbillion"
is enough to make one's head spin!
tractable
- docile
- malleable
- obedient
- amenable
[TRAK-tuh-bul]
1. Capable of being easily led, taught,
controlled, or managed.
Synonym: docile.
2. Easily handled, managed, worked, or
wrought.
Synonym: malleable.
Examples:
1) I have always found horses, an
animal I am attached to, very tractable when treated
with humanity and steadiness. (Mary Wollstonecraft,
"A Vindication of the Rights of Woman")
2) He thought that our temperaments
are at least partly innate: "Some men by
unalterable frame of their constitution are stout,
others timorous, some confident, others modest
and tractable." (Jonathan Weiner, "Time,
Love, Memory")
3) Alice gets out her calculator
and begins solving what, for her, is a far more
tractable kind of problem. (Stephen S. Hall,
"The Smart Set", 'New York Times Magazine',
June 4, 2000)
4) Obedience school had turned the
Millers' formerly undisciplined puppy into a tractable
family pet.
Etymology, more synonyms, related words:
"Obedient," "docile,"
and "amenable" are
synonyms of "tractable,"
but those four words have slightly different
shades of meaning. "Tractable"
describes an individual whose character permits
easy handling, while "docile"
implies a predisposition to submit readily to
authority. "Obedient"
is often used to describe compliance with authority,
although that compliance is not necessarily offered
eagerly. "Amenable," on
the other hand, is usually used when one cooperates
out of a desire to be agreeable. "Tractable"
dates from the early 16th century and derives
from Latin "tractabilis", from
"tractare" - "to handle,
to manage, to treat", frequentative of "traho"
- "to draw, to drag". Despite the resemblance,
this root did not give us the noun "tractor"
or verbs such as "contract"
or "attract" - those all
derive from a loosely related verb, "trahere"
("to draw or drag").
traduce
- malign
- calumniate
- vilify
- defame
- slander
[truh-DOOS; -DYOOS]
1. To expose to shame or blame by
means of falsehood or misrepresentation;
to represent as blamable.
2. To violate, betray.
Examples:
1) The scandalous half-truths in
the unauthorized biography angered the star, and
she was hurt that so many of her former friends
had traduced her.
2) Sir Edward rang twice to stress
that he had no business relationship with the
family other than his consultancy, but also to
vouch for the fact that they were "splendid
people" who should not be traduced. (Ian
Jack, "Generous spirits, secretive souls,"
Independent, October 17, 1998)
3) I sometimes wonder whether those
who traduce today's television have any conception
just how much is on offer to the growing number
of us with multi-channel television. (Peter
Bazalgette, "Golden Age? This is it,"
The Guardian, November 19, 2001)
4) The only problem is that his corrective
arguments tend to traduce rationalism as the exclusive
preserve of wild-eyed eggheads who only ever spin
webs of marvelously useless deduction. (Steven
Poole, "Et cetera," The Guardian, June
30, 2001)
5) Many of you, Our Leader is absolutely
sure, were disgusted at the way Rupert has been
traduced in the media. (A. N. Wilson, "Modern
Britain, modern kitchens! New Labour Web site
number 11," Daily Telegraph, March 3, 1998)
Etymology, synonyms:
1533, "to alter, change over, transport,"
from Latin "traducere" ("change
over, convert", originally "lead along
or across, transfer"), from "trans-"
("across") + "ducere"
("to lead"). Sense of "defame,
slander" (1586) is from L. "traducere"
in the sense of "to scorn or disgrace,"
probably from the notion of "to lead along
as a spectacle."
"Traduce" is one of a
number of English synonyms that you can
choose when you need a word that means "to
injure by speaking ill of." Choose "traduce"
when you want to stress the deep personal humiliation,
disgrace, and distress felt by the victim. If
someone doesn't actually lie, but makes statements
that injure by specific and often subtle misrepresentations,
"malign" may be the more
precise choice. To make it clear that the speaker
is malicious and the statements made are false,
choose "calumniate." But
if you need to say that certain statements represent
an attempt to destroy a reputation by open and
direct abuse, "vilify"
is the word you want.
More synonyms: defame; slander
trail angel
- trail
- angel
- trail
magic
- magic
A person who leaves food and performs other acts
of kindness for hikers.
Examples:
1) Wren experiences awesome vistas
and starry skies, pelting rain, sore knees and
a night in the hospital with a possible tick bite.
And he witnesses miracles: a woman who bakes chocolate-chip
cookies just for hikers, a shop that offers hikers
free milkshakes and - most wondrous of all - "trail
magic": the rare sighting of a can
of beer left chilling in a stream by a "trail
angel." (Carol Peace Robins, "Books
in Brief: Walking to Vermont", The New York
Times, April 11, 2004)
2) The 59-year-old retired prison
guard from Sussex County ... is a "trail
angel." During the nine-month hiking season,
he distributes "trail magic"
- free water, food, and other goodies - just about
every day to through-hikers traversing New Jersey
as they attempt to walk the entire 2,172-mile
Appalachian Trail. He sweeps out trail-side shelters
and leaves behind cookies, hard candy, foot powder,
Advil, and Band-Aids. He fills gallon jugs with
water and leaves them on stretches of the trail
where water is otherwise hard to come by. He hands
out business cards and tells hikers that if they
need anything, anything at all, call. (Bob
Ivry, "An angel through and through",
The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey), August
21, 2003)
trammel
- trammels
- restraints
- untrammeled
[TRAM-ul]
1. A kind of net for catching birds, fish,
etc.
2. A kind of shackle used for making a
horse amble.
3. An iron hook of various forms and sizes,
used for handing kettles and other vessels over
the fire.
4. An instrument for drawing ellipses.
5. An instrument for aligning or
adjusting parts of a machine.
6. (Usually used in plural)
Something impeding activity, progress, or
freedom, as a net or shackle.
7. To confine; to entangle, as in a net;
to enmesh.
8. To hamper; to hinder the activity, progress,
or freedom of.
Examples:
1) I feel she dances a symbol of
human happiness as it should be, free from unnatural
trammels. (John Sloan, quoted in "New
York Modern", by William B. Scott and Peter
M. Rutkoff)
2) Is it a dull or uninstructive
picture to see a whole people shaking suddenly
off the trammels of reason, and running wild after
a golden vision, refusing obstinately to believe
that it is not real, till, like a deluded hind
running after an ignis fatuus, they are plunged
into a quagmire? (Charles Mackay, "Memoirs
of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness
of Crowds")
3) In fact, corporate governance
is based on the belief that managers (like anyone
else) work best not when their freedom is trammelled
but when they are made to account for what they
do with it. ("The way ahead," The
Economist, January 29, 1994)
4) It is quite inconsistent to claim
to promote an enterprise society on the one hand
and to trammel it with regulations on the other.
(Sir Iain Vallance, quoted in "Stop squeezing
business, CBI," by Charlotte Denny and Michael
White, Guardian, May 22, 2002)
5) And it encourages the coercive use
of political power to wipe out choice, forbid
experimentation, shortcircuit feedback, and trammel
progress. (Virginia Postrel, "The Future
and Its Enemies")
6) I cast the miserable trammels
of worldly discretion to the winds, and spoke
with the fervour that filled me... (Wilkie
Collins, "The Moonstone")
Synonyms: restraint, restraints
Etymology, related words:
A trammel fishing net traditionally
has three layers, with the middle one finer-meshed
and slack so that fish passing through the first
net carry some of the center net through the coarser
third net and are trapped. Appropriately, "trammel"
traces back to the Late Latin "tremaculum,"
a kind of net for catching fish, which comes from
Latin "tres," meaning "three,"
and "macula," meaning "mesh."
You may also run across the adjective "untrammeled,"
meaning "not confined or limited."
transact
conduct (business)
transmogrify
[transs-MAH-gruh-fye, trans-MOG-ruh-fy]
To change into a different shape or to transform
or alter greatly, often with bizarre or
humorous effect.
Examples:
1) The movie's central character
finds an odd-looking pair of glasses and is transmogrified
into a heroic crime-fighter when he puts them
on.
2) A washing machine transmogrified
into a guitar. (Adrian Searle, "Come,
friendly pigeons", The Guardian, March 16,
2000)
3) For the impulsive sin of turning
to look back at the funereal pyre of Sodom and
Gomorrah, Lot's wife is transmogrified into a
pillar of salt as she flees the inferno. (Elizabeth
Wurtzel, "Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women")
4) Roast chicken is still roast
chicken whether you label it haute cuisine, bourgeois
cuisine or country cooking; even calling it "poulet
roti" will not transmogrify this simple bird.
(Jacques Pepin, "The Chicken Dinner, Both
Humble and Noble", New York Times, January
4, 1989)
History, more examples:
1656. "Transmogrify" is
perhaps a humorous blend of "transmigrate",
from "transmigure" (for the
form) and "transmute" (for the
sense).
We know that the prefix "trans-"
means "across" or "beyond"
and appears in many words that evoke change, such
as "transform" and "transpire,"
but we don't know the exact origins of "transmogrify"
for sure. The 17th-century dramatist, novelist,
and poet Aphra Behn, who is regarded as
England's first female professional writer, was
among the first English authors to use the word.
In her 1671 comic play "The Amorous Prince"
Behn wrote, "I wou'd Love would transmogriphy
me to a maid now." A century later, Scottish
poet Robert Burns plied the word again
in verse, aptly capturing the grotesque and sometimes
humorous effect of transmogrification: "Social
life and Glee sit down,... Till, quite transmugrify'd,
they're grown Debauchery and Drinking."
transmute
[trans-MYOOT; tranz-]
1. To change from one nature, form, substance,
or state into another; to transform.
2. To undergo transmutation.
Examples:
1) [I]t now seems as if she no longer
had the strength or will to transmute life into
art. (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "Changes
Not for the Better," New York Times, February
28, 1974)
2) Sand that once was rock becomes
rock once again as it slowly sediments and compresses
into layers of sandstone, which, in turn, transmute
into sand. (Lena Lencek and Gideon Bosker,
"The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth")
Etymology:
"Transmute" is from Latin
"transmutare" - "to change
utterly," from "trans-"
("across") + "mutare"
("to change").
travail
[truh-VAIL]
1. a ) work, especially of
a painful or laborious nature
Synonym: toil
b) a physical or mental exertion
or piece of work
Synonyms: task, effort
c) agony, torment
Example:
Increasingly, African-American women writers are
telling of the specific travails that that history
imposed upon their foremothers. (Elizabeth
Fox-Genovese, "Oxford Review", February
1992)
2. labor, parturition
Etymology, related words:
Etymologists are pretty certain that "travail"
comes from "trepalium," the Late
Latin name of an instrument of torture. We don't
know exactly what a "trepalium"
looked like, but the word's history gives us an
idea. "Trepalium" is derived
from the Latin "tripalis," which
means "having three stakes" (from "tri-,"
meaning "three," and "palus,"
meaning "stake"). From "trepalium"
sprang the Anglo-French verb "travailler,"
which originally meant "to torment"
but eventually acquired the milder senses "to
labor" and "to journey." The shift
in meaning from "torment" to "journey"
gives us an idea of what people once thought about
travel: it was torture. The Anglo-French noun
"travail" was borrowed
into English in the 13th century, followed about
a century later by "travel,"
another descendant of "travailler."
travesty
[TRAV-uh-stee]
1. A burlesque translation or literary
or artistic imitation usually grotesquely
incongruous in style, treatment, or subject
matter.
2. A debased, distorted, or grossly
inferior imitation.
Example:
The new movie is a travesty of a documentary,
likely to appeal only to the lowest sense of humor.
History, related words, more meanings:
"Travesty," which first
appeared in print in English as a noun in 1674,
comes from the French verb "travestir,"
meaning "to disguise." The word's roots,
however, wind back through Italian to Latin. That
ancient tongue includes the verb "vestire,"
a verb meaning "to clothe" or "to
dress." "Vestire" is the
ancestor of "travesty"
and a number of other English words, including
"transvestite," "divest,"
and "investiture." "Travesty,"
incidentally, can also be a verb meaning
"to make a travesty of" or "to
parody"; the verb predates the noun
in English by a single year.
treacly
1. Like, or composed of, treacle.
2. Overly sweet or sentimental.
Examples:
1) Before the revolution Chukovsky
had tried to free children's literature from treacly
verse and goody-goody stories. ("St Petersburg:
A Cultural History", Solomon Volkov)
2) Holmes flattered Gertie and Julia
with smiles and gifts and treacly praise-especially
Gertie-and how the women glowed in response. (Erik
Larson, "The Devil in the White City")
3) Everyone has already said so, so
let me add my congratulations to NBC: You guys
made this the most dumbed-down, unremittingly
sappy, embarrassingly treacly, watch-this-mug
cry-for-the-anthem Olympic coverage in television
history. (Paul Vitello, "Let the Sap Flow
in Sydney," Newsday, August 6, 1996)
Etymology:
"Treacly" is formed from
"treacle", from Middle English
"triacle" ("antidote against
poison"), from Old French, from Latin "theriaca",
from Greek "theriake" - "antidotos",
"(antidote against a poisonous bite from)
a wild animal," feminine of "theriakos"
("of wild animals"), from "therion",
diminutive of "ther" ("wild
animal").
tremulous
[TREM-yuh-luhs]
1. Shaking; shivering; quivering; as, a
tremulous motion of the hand or the lips; the
tremulous leaf of the poplar.
2. Affected with fear or timidity; trembling.
Examples:
1) With an address for his father
at last in his possession, Sead could scarcely
contain a tremulous excitement. (Roger Cohen,
"Hearts Grown Brutal")
2) In any event, when I thrust myself
out of bed so violently, my heart became tremulous,...
and I had the direst sense of mortality I have
ever experienced. (Jim Harrison, "The
Road Home")
Etymology:
"Tremulous" comes from
Latin "tremulus", from "tremere"
- "to tremble."
trenchant
1. Characterized by or full of force
and vigor; as, "a trenchant
analysis"; vigorously effective and articulate;
also: caustic.
2. Caustic; biting; severe; as,
"trenchant criticism".
3. Distinct; clear-cut; clearly or
sharply defined; clear-cut, distinct; sharply
perceptive.
Synonyms: penetrating.
4. Keen, sharp.
Examples:
1) Her insistence that women's rights
should be upheld universally, notwithstanding
concerns about cultural diversity, led some to
criticise her for being too narrowly entrenched
within western liberalism, while others celebrated
her trenchant defence of egalitarianism. (Judith
Squires, "Susan Moller Okin", The Guardian,
March 26, 2004)
2) His revolutionary music, abrasive
personality and trenchant writings about art and
life divided the city into warring factions. (Jonathan
Carr, "Mahler: A Biography")
3) The trenchant divisions between
right and wrong, honest and dishonest, respectable
and the reverse, had left so little scope for
the unforseen. (Edith Wharton, "The Age
of Innocence")
Etymology, related words:
"Trenchant" comes from
Old French, from the present participle of "trenchier"
("to cut"), and may ultimately derive
from the Vulgar Latin "trinicare,"
meaning "to cut in three."
Hence, a trenchant sword
is one with a keen edge; a trenchant
remark is one that cuts deep; and a trenchant
observation is one that cuts to the heart
of the matter. Relatives of "trenchant"
in English include the noun "trench"
("a long ditch cut into the ground")
and the verb "retrench"
("to cut down or pare away" or "to
cut down expenses").
trepid
[TREP-id]
timorous, fearful
Example:
After dark, the less trepid among us would venture
as far as the front porch of the empty house,
where the smallest creak would send us screaming.
History, related words, more examples:
Don't be afraid to use "trepid."
After all, it has been in the English language
over 350 years - longer, by 30 years, than its
antonym "intrepid." "Trepid"
(from Latin "trepidus," meaning
"alarmed" or "agitiated")
isn't used as much as "intrepid,"
but it can be a good word at times. Bill Kaufman,
for example, found a use for it in a May 7, 2000
"Newsday" article, in which an aquarium
volunteer is "asked if she is perhaps
a little trepid about swimming with sharks in
a 12-foot deep, 120,000 gallon tank."
(Her fearless reply: "Not really.")
More of that, one may use "trepidate"
for "to tremble with fear" and "trepidant,"
meaning "timid, trembling." These are
uncommon words, granted, but they haven't breathed
their last.
tripping
- trip
- You
must be tripping
- Smb.
must be tripping
- One
must be tripping
- be
tripping
To be under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs
such as LSD.
Example:
The sky looks red? Dude, are you tripping?
Etymology:
In the 1960s, many people used mind-altering drugs,
and some people referred to their drug experiences
as 'trips' (or journeys). Today the word is usually
used in jest, to describe a foolish statement.
When someone says something stupid or silly, you
might say to them 'You must be tripping'.
triskaidekaphobia
- triskaidekaphobic
- triskaidekaphobe
[tris-ky-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh]
A morbid fear of the number 13 or the date
Friday the 13th.
Examples:
1) Thirteen people, pledged to eliminate
triskaidekaphobia, fear of the number 13, today
tried to reassure American sufferers by renting
a 13 ft plot of land in Brooklyn for 13 cents...
a month. (Daily Telegraph, January 14, 1967)
2) Past disasters linked to the
number 13 hardly help triskaidekaphobics overcome
their affliction. The most famous is the Apollo
13 mission, launched on April 11, 1970 (the sum
of 4, 11 and 70 equals 85 - which when added together
comes to 13), from Pad 39 (three times 13) at
13:13 local time, and struck by an explosion on
April 13. ("It's just bad luck that the
13th is so often a Friday," Electronic Telegraph,
September 8, 1996)
Etymology, related words:
"Triskaidekaphobia" is
a fairly new word (first found in print in 1911)
formed from Greek "treiskaideka, triskaideka",
"thirteen" ("treis",
"three" + "kai", "and"
+ "deka", "ten") +
"phobos", "fear." The
adjective form is "triskaidekaphobic".
One who fears the number 13 is a triskaidekaphobe
or triskaidekaphobic.
troglodyte
- troglodytic
- troglodytical
- troglo-
- troglo
- troglobiont
1. A member of a primitive people that
lived in caves, dens, or holes; a cave
dweller.
2. One who is regarded as reclusive, reactionary,
out of date, or brutish.
Examples:
1) When the survivalists emerged
blinking into the sunlight to restock their caves
after the terror, my first reaction was to say,
"Bless their dotty, troglodyte hearts."
(Judy Mann, "Survivalists Flee Reality
to Live in Fear", Washington Post, October
5, 2001)
2) ...an admitted electronics-averse
troglodyte like myself, who writes with a fountain
pen, shaves with a mug and brush, grinds his own
coffee and spends summers in a Maine fishing town
where the nearest latte is 45 minutes away. (Frank
Van Riper, "Another Door Opens", Washington
Post, May 5, 2000)
3) For the first time, opening a fashion
magazine didn't make me feel like a cloddish troglodyte
who needed fixing. (Janelle Brown, "Keeping
it real", Salon, June 4, 2001)
Etymology, related words:
"Troglodyte" comes from
Latin "Troglodytae", a people
said to be cave dwellers, from Greek "Troglodytai",
"troglodutae", from "trogle"
("a hole") + "dyein"
("to enter, to go in"). The adjective
form is troglodytic and troglodytical.
"Troglodyte" and "troglodytic(al)"
are the only "trogle" offspring
that are widely used in general English contexts,
but another "trogle" progeny,
the prefix "troglo-,"
meaning "cave-dwelling," is used in
scientific contexts to form words like "troglobiont"
("an animal living in or restricted to caves").
trolleyology
Examining the contents of another person's shopping
trolley in order to draw conclusions about that
person's personality, behaviour or outlook
on life.
Example:
A common application of trolleyology is in the
evaluation of potential romantic partners based
on their culinary and household habits, or the
portrayal of a particular image to potential partners
by judicious selection of the contents of your
trolley!
History, related word:
In November 1999 the Guardian newspaper
featured a story about love bleepers being given
away free in Sainsbury's stores, supermarkets
allegedly being one of the most popular places
for single people to search for potential partners.
In fact supermarkets have provided another new
concept related to the quest for romance: the
practice of trolleyology. One who
practices it is a trolleyologist.
truckle
To yield or bend obsequiously to the will of another;
to act in a subservient manner. Examples:
1) Only where there was a "defiance,"
a "refusal to truckle," a "distrust
of all authority," they believed, would institutions
"express human aspirations, not crush them".
(Pauline Maier, "A More Perfect Union",
New York Times, October 31, 1999)
2) The son struggled to be obedient
to the conventional, commercial values of the
father and, at the same time, to maintain his
own playful, creative innocence. This conflict
could make him truckle in the face of power. (Dr.
Margaret Brenman-Gibson, quoted in "Theater
Friends Recall Life and Works of Odets,"
by Herbert Mitgang, New York Times, October 30,
1981)
3) I am convinced that, broadly speaking,
the audience must accept the piece on my own terms;
that it is fatal to truckle to what one conceives
to be popular taste. (Sidney Joseph Perelman,
quoted in "The Perelman Papers," by
Herbert Mitgang, New York Times, March 15, 1981)
Etymology:
"Truckle" is from "truckle"
in "truckle bed" (a low bed on wheels
that may be pushed under another bed; also called
a trundle bed), in reference to the fact that
the truckle bed on which the pupil slept was rolled
under the large bed of the master. The ultimate
source of the word is Greek "trokhos"
("a wheel").
truculent
[TRUCK-yuh-luhnt]
1. Fierce; savage; ferocious; barbarous.
2. Cruel; destructive; ruthless.
Examples:
1) I ask whether impeachment will
become still another arrow in the quiver of the
warrior class of ever more truculent partisan
politicians in Washington. ("Former Watergate
Prosecutors See Censure as Alternative in Clinton's
Case," New York Times, December 9, 1998)
2) ...officers mistook his father's
cursing and argumentative reception of five men
with guns for the actions of a truculent fugitive.
(Frank J. Murray, "Media can't join police
raids of homes, high court decides," Washington
Times, May 25, 1999)
3) Those bamboozled into believing
palpable untruths that are recognized as such
by the larger community are likely in time to
develop an attitude of truculent resentment and
outright paranoia rather than self-esteem.
(Thomas M. Disch, "The Dreams Our Stuff Is
Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World")
Etymology:
"Truculent" derives from
Latin "truculentus", from "trux,
truc-" ("rough, savage, fierce").
trump card
Something that you hold back to use to win success
if nothing else works.
Example: The boxer's trump card in his
desire for another fight was his great popularity
with the fans.
History:
A trump card is a card that is chosen
to temporarily be stronger than the other cards.
trumpery
[TRUM-puh-ree]
1. Worthless nonsense.
2. Trivial or useless articles.
Synonym: junk.
Example:
Elizabeth's desk at work is crammed with souvenirs,
paperweights, and other such trumpery.
Etymology:
"Trumpery" derives from
the Middle English "trompery"
and ultimately from the Middle French "tromper,"
meaning "to deceive." (You can see the
meaning of this root reflected in the French phrase
"trompe l'oeil" - literally,
"deceives the eye" - which in English
refers to a style of painting with photographically
realistic detail.) "Trumpery"
first appeared in English in the mid-15th century
with the meanings "deceit or fraud"
(a sense that is now obsolete) and "worthless
nonsense." Less than 100 years later, it
was being applied to cluttering material objects
of little or no value. The verb phrase "trump
up" means "to concoct with the
intent to deceive," but there is most likely
no etymological connection between this phrase
and "trumpery."
truth is stranger than
fiction
- truth
- stranger
- strange
- fiction
Things that happen in real life can be more unusual
or surprising than things that people make up
in stories.
Example:
When I read that the same couple had been married
three times, once in an airplane,
once in a hot-air balloon, and once in an elevator,
I decided that truth really is stranger than fiction!
truthiness
The quality of stating facts that you believe
or want to be true, rather than stating
facts that are known to be true.
Adjective - truthy
Examples:
1) A better word could not have
been coined to describe the current debate over
global warming & The & most bizarre example of
truthiness is that we have a number of
cheap, nonpolluting and renewable sources of energy
we can exploit. (The News-Press, Florida, 18th
January 2006) 2) The Bush Administration
has shown that bold-faced lying works like a charm.
As long as they speak with 'truthy' conviction,
they persuade people, despite the overwhelming
evidence that they are leading us down the garden
path. (The Progressive, 31st January 2006)
History: The word "truthiness"
was first brought into the public eye in October
2005 by US comedian Stephen Colbert, who
featured the term in his satirical news commentary
programme "The Colbert Report".
Though Colbert exploited the non-intellectual,
'made-up' character of truthiness for
humorous effect, the word was not his own invention
and in fact dates back as far as the 1800s. The
"Oxford English Dictionary"
contains an entry for the adjective "truthy",
which is defined as 'characterised by the truth'
and includes the derivation "truthiness".
"Truthy" and "truthiness"
were originally used as straightforward variants
of "truthful" and "truthfulness".
Though Colbert can't be credited with
inventing the word, he is certainly responsible
for re-introducing "truthiness"
and "truthy" into
21st century English, giving them a new, ironic
meaning. On 6th January 2006, in its 16th annual
vote on new or significant English words, the
"American Dialect Society"
<http://www.americandialect.org>
declared the word "truthiness"
as overall winner, giving it the esteemed
title Word of the Year <http://www.americandialect.org/index.php/
amerdial/truthiness_voted_2005_word_of_the_year/>
for 2005. So just why, amongst a range of more
obviously topical or popular candidates such as
"podcast" <New-Words/050516-podcasting.htm>,
"Sudoku" <New-Words/051107-Sudoku.htm>
or "rendition" <New-Words/060130-rendition.htm>,
did a dark horse like "truthiness"
claim the crown? The answer seems to be that
"truthiness", which refers
to the quality of preferring concepts or facts
that you wish to be true, rather than concepts
or facts that you know to be true, somehow
embodies the zeitgeist of recent years, conveniently
placing itself somewhere between the actual truth
and the conviction of belief or opinion. Though
the word initially prompted mixed reactions across
the media as a rather unlikely choice for word
of the year, possibly partly due to its more limited
exposure relative to the other candidates, people
quickly cottoned on to the word's potential to
fill a lexical gap for something fundamental about
human nature. "Truthiness"
is a very useful concept in today's society
because the truth is often inconvenient
or simply boring. "Truthiness"
has therefore been quickly associated with
political spin and fabrication in general. Soon
after the announcement by the "American
Dialect Society", a controversy surrounding
a best-selling book entitled "A Million
Little Pieces" <http://www.randomhouse.com/
nanatalese/millionlittlepieces/>, by
author and convicted criminal James Frey, acted
as a catalyst in truthiness's
more widespread recognition and potential
survival. It was claimed that the book,
dealing with Frey's drug addiction and
criminal activities, was filled with fabrications
and lies. In a widely publicised interview<http://www.thesmokinggun.com/
jamesfrey/0104061jamesfrey1.html> on the
"The Oprah Winfrey Show" <http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/
200601/tows_past_20060126.jhtml>, Frey
was confronted about how far his memoirs constituted
truthiness rather than actual truth.
tryst
[TRIST; TRYST]
1. An appointment (as between lovers) to
meet; also, an appointed place or time of meeting.
2. To mutually agree to meet at a certain
place; to keep a tryst.
Examples:
1) And it bothers me that I begin
to worry if she's planning a tryst with my handsome
neighbour. (Anita Nair, "The Better Man")
2) Having left a "[2]Dear John"
letter for her husband on the kitchen table, she
set off to the airport, where she waited, and
waited. Of course, Henry had entirely forgotten
about the tryst, and she had to return home crestfallen.
("The serial seducer who took Amis's wife,"
Times (London), May 17, 2000)
3) Once Nick goes into the kitchen
to tryst with Martha, it is Ms. Kurtz's turn to
let loose with some fireworks. (Frank Rich,
"Hot Seat")
4) Scientists are hoping the cosmos
will bear witness to a romantic rendezvous today
as a spacecraft attempts a Valentine's Day "tryst"
with an asteroid called Eros. (Nigel Hawkes,
"Eros beckons spacecraft for cosmic tryst,"
Times (London), February 14, 2000)
Etymology:
"Tryst" is from Middle
English "triste","tryste"
("a station to which game was driven (in
hunting)"), from Old French "triste"
("a station to which game was driven, a watch
post"), probably of Scandinavian origin.
tumid
- bloated
- distended
- inflated
- bloat
- distend
- inflate
- puff
- puffed
- puffy
[TOO-mid; TYOO-mid]
1. Swollen, enlarged, or distended;
as, "a tumid leg".
2. Bulging; protuberant.
3. Swelling in sound or sense; pompous;
inflated; bombastic.
1) Oedema - swelling of the tissues
caused by fluid retention - had left his face
pouchy and tumid. (Ian Thomson, "Bringing
my father home," Independent, December 14,
2003)
2) Give me your tumid, your sore,
your glutted tummies, churning with hot dogs and
ice cream... (David Nevers, "Chicken Soup
in the Melting Pot," The Record, August 27,
1994)
3) The faults throughout are the same,
a tumid style, generality of emotion, imprecision
of image and no definite location of anything.
(T. S. Eliot, letter to J.V. Healy, November 22,
1932)
Synonyms: bloated, distended, inflated,
puffed, puffy
Etymology:
"Tumid" comes from Latin
"tumidus", from "tumere"
("to swell").
turbid
[TUR-bid]
1. Muddy; thick with or as if with roiled
sediment; not clear (used of liquids of any
kind).
2. Thick; dense; dark (used of clouds,
air, fog, smoke, etc.).
3. Disturbed; confused; disordered.
Examples:
1) Although both are found in the
same waters, black crappies usually prefer clearer,
quieter water, while white crappies flourish in
warmer, siltier and more turbid water. (Tim
Eisele, "Crappie Facts," Capital Times
(Madison, Wisconsin), May 8, 1998)
2) Rough or smooth, the Irish Sea
at Blackpool is always turbid. Beneath the murk
float unspeakable things. (David Walker, "Is
Labour right to end its affair with Blackpool?
YES says David," Independent, March 26, 1998)
3) Wesley's mind seems at this time
to have been in a turbid and restless state.
(W. B. Stonehouse, "The History and Topography
of the Isle of Axholme")
Etymology:
"Turbid" comes from Latin
"turbidus" ("confused, disordered"),
from "turba" ("disturbance,
commotion").
turgid
[TUR-jid] 1. Swollen, bloated, puffed
up; as, "a turgid limb."
2. Swelling in style or language;
bombastic, pompous; as, "a
turgid style of speaking."
Examples:
1) The famous Faulkner style was
more than many could put up with. Its marathon
sentences, its peculiar words used peculiarly,
its turgid incoherence and its thick viscosity
repelled. (Orville Prescott, "A Literary
Personality", New York Times, July 7, 1962)
2) Brown's novels are filled with
the rigged episodes of melodrama and the turgid
prose that passed for elegance among the literary
circles in America before Irving and Hawthorne
arrived on the scene. ("The Battle of
the Books", New York Times, July 10, 1988)
3) Many young Libyans prefer to
get their news from the Internet rather than the
turgid evening news programs filled with slogans
and cliches. (Amany Radwan, "The Weird,
Wired World of Colonel Ghaddafi", Time, February
6, 2001)
4) The arm being bound, and the
veins made turgid, and the valves prominent, as
before, apply the thumb or finger over a vein
in the situation of one of the valves in such
a way as to compress it, and prevent any blood
from passing upwards from the hand. (William
Harvey, "On the Motion of the Heart and Blood
in Animals")
Etymology:
"Turgid" derives from
Latin "turgidus", from "turgere"
("to swell").
turophile
[TOOR-uh-fyle]
A connoisseur of cheese; a cheese fancier.
Example:
The new store is a turophile's heaven, offering
more than 2,000 varieties of cheese.
Etymology:
Are you stuck on Stilton or gaga for Gouda? Do
you crave Camembert? If so, you just might be
a turophile, the ultimate cheese
lover. From an irregular formation of the Greek
word for cheese, "tyros," plus
the English "-phile," meaning
"lover" (itself a descendant of the
Greek "-philos," meaning "loving"),
"turophile" first named
cheese aficionados as early as 1938. It was in
the 1950s, however, that the term really caught
the attention of the American public, when Clifton
Fadiman (writer, editor, and former radio
host) introduced "turophile"
to readers of his eloquent musings on the subject
of cheese.
turpitude
[TUR-puh-tood; -tyood]
1. Inherent baseness or vileness
of principle, words, or actions.
Synonym: depravity.
2. A base act.
Examples:
1) In the eyes of the far left,
it [the 60s] is the era when revolution was at
hand, only to be betrayed by the feebleness of
the faithful and the trickery of the enemy; to
the radical right, an era of subversion and moral
turpitude. (Arthur Marwick, "The Sixties:
Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy,
and the United States, c.1958-c.1974")
2) They based their action on a
clause in the uniform player contract which says
players must "conform to standards of good
citizenship and good moral character" and
disallows "engaging in acts of moral turpitude."
(Ira Berkow, "Go Ahead, Choke the Boss
- Only in the N.B.A.," New York Times, March
5, 1998)
3) They were not his misdeeds, his
turpitudes; she accused him of nothing - that
is, of but one thing, which was not a crime. (Henry
James, "The Portrait of a Lady")
Etymology:
"Turpitude" comes from
Latin "turpitudo", from "turpis"
- "foul, base."
tutelage
[TOO-tuh-lij]
1. The act of guarding or protecting.
2. The state of being under a guardian
or tutor.
3. Instruction, especially
of an individual.
Examples:
1) Under the tutelage of her high
school swim coach, Lynn has greatly improved her
times.
2) But he was not yet free of his
father's legal tutelage and had still to decide
on a career. (Roland Huntford, "Nansen:
The Explorer as Hero")
3) This was the Puerto Rico that
the United States invaded on July 25, 1898 - a
country that wanted political, economic, and social
justice, but not colonial tutelage, however well
meant. (Jose Trias Monge, "Puerto Rico:
The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World")
4) Many years under my grandfather's
tutelage had made me the best calligrapher in
the entire school. (Da Chen, "Colors of
the Mountain")
5) Under her tutelage he picks up
not only Greek but Hebrew, Arabic and Japanese
before moving on to the rest of the major spoken
languages and a slew of minor ones. (Myla Goldberg,
"Paternity Suitor," New York Times,
October 15, 2000)
Etymology, related words:
The word is from Latin "tutela"
("protection; guardian"), from the past
participle of "tueri" ("to
watch, to guard") + the suffix "-age".
When "tutelage" first
began appearing in print in the early 1600s, it
was used mainly in the protective sense of "tueri,"
as writers described serfs and peasants of earlier
eras as being "under the tutelage of their
lord." Over time, however, the word's meaning
shifted away from guardianship and toward instruction.
This pattern of meaning can also be seen in the
related nouns "tutor"
(a person who instructs or guides another) and
"tuition" (the act or
profession of teaching or the cost of instruction).
Nowadays "tutelage" can
be used for any guiding influence in one's life.
twixter
- permanent
adolescent
- permanent
- adolescent
- twenty-something
Peter Pan
- twenty-something
- Peter
Pan
- tweeny
- kidult
- youthhood
- adultescent
- emerging
adulthood
- emerging
- adulthood
- boomerang
kid
- boomerang
- kid
Young people between the ages of about 20 and
28, usually college graduates who are often unmarried
and living at home, often with no settled employment.
Examples:
1) And what might a twixter be?
Those in their middle-to-late-20s experiencing
a period of limbo between the college years and
the permanence of adulthood (career, marriage,
children). ("St. Louis Post-Dispatch",
31 Jan. 2005)
2) In his view, what looks like
incessant, hedonistic play is the twixters' way
of trying on jobs and partners and personalities
and making sure that when they do settle down,
they do it the right way, their way. It's not
that they don't take adulthood seriously; they
take it so seriously, they're spending years carefully
choosing the right path into it. ("Time",
24 Jan. 2005)
History, synonyms:
The cover story in "Time" Magazine
of 24 January, 2005 argued that a shift has taken
place in the culture of "permanent
adolescents" and "twenty-something
Peter Pans", stuck between childhood
and the adult world; it also coined "twixters"
for them because they were "betwixt and
between", perhaps modelled on the established
term "tweenies" for those
a little younger than teenagers. As the article
implied, there's nothing particularly new in identifying
this age group as one with special problems: psychologists
have in the past coined terms such as "kidult",
"youthhood", "adultescent",
"emerging adulthood",
and "boomerang kid" when
writing about it, none of which have been especially
successful in linguistic terms. The piece got
a lot of attention; opponents argued that it was
economics, not arrested development, that has
led to their situation. It's too early to say
whether "twixter" stands
any greater chance of catching the public imagination
than previous creations.
two way
1. A system where you can contact people
very easy, like a nationwide walkie-talkie.
2. (slang) A two headed strap-on
sexual device.
Example: Last night me and my boyfriend
used a two way for the first time.
tyro
[TY-roh]
A beginner in learning; a novice.
Examples:
1) It's difficult to imagine a tyro
publishing a book on medical procedures or economic
theory. (Philip Zaleski, "God Help the
Spiritual Writer," New York Times, January
10, 1999)
2) He was a sensitive, fine soul alert
to the pleasures of being green, a tyro, an amateur,
unwilling to close his mind before it had been
tempted. (Paul West, "Sporting With Amaryllis")
3) And, though we were mere tyros,
beginners, utterly insignificant, he was invariably
as kind and considerate and thoughtful, and as
lavish in the gift of his time, as though he had
nothing else to do. (Leonard Warren, "Joseph
Leidy: The Last Man Who Knew Everything")
Etymology:
"Tyro" is from Latin "tiro"
- "a young soldier, a recruit", hence
"a beginner, a learner."