sobriquet ( so-brih-KAY; -KET) also soubriquet, noun:

A nickname; an assumed name; an epithet.

—Related forms
so•bri•quet•i•cal, adjective

In addition to his notorious amours, he became distinguished for a turbulent naval career, particularly for the storms he weathered, thus bringing him the sobriquet "Foulweather Jack".
- Phyllis Grosskurth, Byron: The Flawed Angel

At a small reception on the occasion of my twenty-fifth anniversary in this position, my good friend Izzy Landes raised a glass and dubbed me the Curator of the Curators, a sobriquet I have worn with pride ever since.
- Alfred Alcorn, Murder in the Museum of Man

There was an omnivorous intellect that won him the family sobriquet of Walking Encyclopedia.
- Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian


1646; Sobriquet is from the French, from Old French soubriquet, "a chuck under the chin, hence, an affront, a nickname."
- http://www.dictionary.com


At boarding school, our beloved principal was given the sobriquet 'the great white chief' by us little indians; but usually we called him 'Prof.'

mumblecore (MUM-bull-kawhr), noun; adj.

of or relating to a genre of independent, low budget, improvisatory movies, characterized by the ordinary and trivial in conversation and subject matter and plot.

related words:
mumblecorps, noun
mumblecordian, noun

The term "mumblecore" was coined by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor who has worked with Bujalski. It is sometimes written as "mumblecorps," as in press corps. –wikipedia.com

“ Recent rumblings -- perhaps one should say mumblings -- indicate an emerging movement in American independent film. Specimens of the genre share a low-key naturalism, low-fi production values and a stream of low-volume chatter often perceived as ineloquence. Hence the name: mumblecore.” - “A Generation Finds Its Mumble”, August 19, 2007, Sunday, By DENNIS LIM (New York Times)

“Quiet City” belongs to the movie genre labeled mumblecore, so named partly because the young, nerdy characters in these films rarely address any subject outside their immediate social sphere. If they don’t actually mumble their words, the tone of their conversations is restricted to various shades of chat, much of which seems trivial. – “Between the Mumbles, Images of Sorrowful Poetry” By STEPHEN HOLDEN, Published: August 29, 2007 (New York Times)

“The mumblecore genre, with its minimalist aesthetics, minuscule budgets, home-movie casting of friends and acquaintances and its fly-on-the-wall, quasi-documentary spontaneity, is so wide-open for parody that it is a sitting duck for the most withering send-up. “Quiet City” is fortunate to arrive just before the inevitable demolition crews arrive to tear it to shreds. Tender and sad, it is a fully realized work of mumblecore poetry.” –ibid

“Mumblecore is demographically self-contained. Straight, white, middle class. The movies suggest college, without the course load. There are almost no grown-ups—which is to say anyone over 30. . . . Whether breaking up or hooking up, Mumblecordians spend much time pondering what to do and say. . . . Mumblecore’s compulsive navel-gazing, paucity of external references, and narrow field of interest is not for every taste— . . . . The least to be said for Bujalski, Swanberg, Katz et al is that they are confronting the conditions of their lives, including making their movies. It’s impossible to predict how the Mumblecorps will mature but, given their immersion in the moment, I suspect that the films they’ve made will age very well.” – “It's Mumblecore! - Films by, for, and about twentysomethings are having a moment” by J. Hoberman, August 17th, 2007 12:57 AM, (The Village Voice)

solecism (SOL-uh-siz-uhm), noun:

1. A nonstandard usage or grammatical construction; also, a minor blunder in speech.
2. A breach of good manners or etiquette.
3. Any inconsistency, mistake, or impropriety.



An accurate report of anything that has ever been said in any parliament would be blather, solecism, verbiage and nonsense.
- "Hansard of the Highlands", Times (London), February 17, 2001

Her English is good, apart from a few stubborn idiosyncrasies of preposition and tense, but these are music to me, sung solecisms - how else to describe "I am already loving you," her first declaration of feeling for me, now two years old?
- Ronan Bennett, The Catastrophist

In those days smoking in the streets was an unpardonable solecism.
- Edmund Yates, Recollections

. . .another of her fabrications or flat-footed solecisms or, at any rate, a simple indication of the boundless ineptitude with which she manages Leonardo's affairs.
- R.M. Berry, Leonardo's Horse


Solecism comes from Latin soloecismus, from Greek soloikizein, "to speak incorrectly," from soloikos, "speaking incorrectly," literally, "an inhabitant of Soloi," a city in ancient Cilicia where a dialect regarded as substandard was spoken.

-from http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/


—Related forms
solecist, noun
solecistic, solecistical, adjective
solecistically, adverb


A solecism is a grammatical mistake or absurdity. Some examples of usages often regarded as solecisms in standard English are:
"This is just between you and I" for "This is just between you and me." (hypercorrection to avoid the common, non-standard "you and me" form in the subject of sentences while "me" is, nonetheless, the standard pronoun for the object of a preposition.)
"He ain't going nowhere" for "He isn't [or he's not] going anywhere." (dialectic usage)
"Whom ate the food?" for "Who ate the food?" (hypercorrection resulting from the perception that "whom" is a formal version of "who")
"He's the person whom I believe is the fastest" for "He's the person who I believe is the fastest." (hypercorrection resulting from the perception that the relative pronoun is functioning as an object in the dependent clause when, in fact, it is a subject, with the predicate "is the fastest"; contrast "whom I believe to be the fastest," in which "whom" is the object of "I believe.")-from wikipedia.com

com•mi•na•tion [kom-uh-ney-shuhn]

–noun

1. a threat of punishment or vengeance.
2. a denunciation.
3. (in the Church of England) a penitential office read on Ash Wednesday in which God's anger and judgments are proclaimed against sinners.

Origin: 1400–50; late ME (< AF) < L comminātiōn- from commination-, from comminari, "to threaten," from com-, intensive prefix + minari, "to threaten."[/b]

—Related forms
com•mi•na•tor, noun
com•min•a•to•ry [kuh-min-uh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee, kom-uh-nuh-], com•mi•na•tive, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)


“Vishnevskaya's powerful story is full of ferocious, grandly operatic comminations of vicious authorities and toadying colleagues.”
- Terry Teachout, review of Galina: A Russian Story by Galina Vishnevskaya, National Review, March 22, 1985

“At last the leaders of the Democratic Party have moved decisively, hauling out their ripest comminations and hurling them at -- no, not at George Bush.”
- Alexander Cockburn, "No place in the Democratic Party", The Nation, March 31, 2003

“An early copy had been seen by Anne Fine, our retiring Children's Laureate, and, as one of her final acts..., she issued a commination against it in the Guardian newspaper, buttressed by many spicy quotations.”
- Brian Alderson, "Message in a bottle", Horn Book Magazine, September 1, 2003
-Dictionary.com

Not sure where I first ran into this word - I'm beginning to fit into the category with my eyeglasses and hearing-aid; however nothing implanted - yet. Some consider computers and the internet to be extensions of our nervous systems - they certainly do extend our mental abilities but could mental abilities be considered physiological processes?

cyborg , noun

a person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by machine tech-nology. - Concise Oxford Dictionary, Ninth Edition.

A human who has certain physiological processes aided or controlled by mechanical or electronic devices. - American Heritage Dictionary

cyborgian, adjective

“I am caught, not only as a woman, as a painter but as a human, with an actual body not a virtual one, albeit slightly cyborgian, looking out from my contact lens implants.” - Janet Jones / UAAC Conference: Vancouver, British Columbia, November, 1997. Conference Paper: Painting: The Body & Technology

“The quasi-cyborgian ways in which hospitalized humans have been connected to machines, and more generally to technological systems, has disturbed in sometimes macabre ways the very meaning of what it means to die, and has rendered ambiguous even such a seemingly straightforward question of when someone can be said to be dead.” - Rhetorics of Biology in the Age of Biomechanical Reproduction David Depew, Guest Editor, Poroi, 2, 1, August, 2003

“The most powerful thing that happens in the Cyborg boundary-crossing is that the dualisms we often use to distinguish human being, nature, culture, and technology are rendered obsolete. In the final analysis, there are no lasting ontological distinctions between them.” - The Created Co-Creator Meets Cyborg, by Philip Hefner at http://www.metanexus.net/Magazine/ArticleDetail/tabid/68/id/8780/Default.aspx


“Through our mobile and ubiquitous devices we will be constantly engaged in, or have available, the possibility for numerous hyper-interactions such as those above, that will collectively create a hyper-reality that we will effortlessly live in. Indeed, this new cyborgian world will become the norm, so in fact our machine-mediated hyper-reality will actually become our new reality.” - Andrew Ravenscroft , London Metropolitan University, http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/ice3/papers/ravenscroft.html

I like that word, D! (cyborg, she repeats to herself...)

DERVISH

Pronunciation: ['dêr-vish]

Definition: A Muslim friar or fakir belonging to a sect that induces mystical trances by dancing feverishly while chanting religious phrases ("whirling dervish" or "howling dervish"), hence anyone possessed of frenetic energy.

Usage: Whirling dervishes belong to the Mevlevi (Mawlawiyya) sect of the Sufi order of Islam. This sect was founded by Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi in the 13th century. In a ritual called the sema, the dervishes spin to the music of reed pipes and drums. Chanting religious aphorisms, they remove black cloaks to reveal underlying voluminous white skirts that flare outward. The belief is that the feverish dancing releases their souls from their earthly ties and allows them to interact freely with the divine.

Suggested Usage: This word serves well in referring to someone who acts frenetically, "Thelma spends most of her days watching television but she works like a dervish the night before exams." The simile applies to any activity: "Darwin seems a normal guy during the day but at night he fiddles like a dervish at a country-western dance hall outside Sparta."

Etymology: "Dervish" is a Turkish word borrowed from the Persian "darvesh," the equivalent of Arabic fakir "beggar, mendicant, friar" from Middle Persian "dreeyosh."


—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

cybrarian (sye-BRAIR-ee-un)

1. a person whose job is to find, collect, and manage information that is available on the World Wide Web

Example Sentence:
The library provided an e-mail address to submit inquiries to the cybrarian.

We've been using "librarian" for the people who manage libraries since at least the beginning of the 18th century, and the word was used for scribes and copyists even earlier than that. "Cybrarian," on the other hand, is much newer; its earliest documented use is from 1992. "Librarian" combines "library" (itself from "liber," the Latin word for book) and the noun suffix "-an," meaning "one specializing in." When people wanted a word for a person who performed duties similar to those of a librarian by using information from the Internet, they went a step further and combined "cyber-," meaning "of, relating to, or involving computers or a computer network," with "librarian" to produce the new "cybrarian."
- Merriam-Webster online

2. Cyberspace Librarian. A person able to command almost absolutely anything from the internet on whim. Cybrarians download too much, and know where to find whatever it is they don't have.
example: “I came across this crazy cybrarian in chat who had every video they ever made.”
- urbandictionary.com

3. a librarian who uses computers and the Internet for their work; any person who works doing online research and information retrieval, esp. one who answers reference questions online; also called data surfers, super searchers
- Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary

ginormous (je-NOR-muss, -mehs), adjective

gigantic + enormous circa 1948

extremely large ; humongous

Just two years after a majority of visitors to Merriam-Webster OnLine declared it to be their "Favorite Word (Not in the Dictionary)," the adjective "ginormous" (now officially defined as "extremely large: humongous"), has won a legitimate place in the 2007 copyright update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition

Examples: "Millicent, that 32 pound cat of yours is ginormous!" - unwords.com

1986 Jazz (Autobot) - Transformers The Movie "This is Jazz, a ginormous weird looking planet just showed up in the suburbs of Cybertron."

1988 Andrew Radford - Transformational Grammar: A First Course : “When new Adjectives are created (e.g. ginormous concocted out of gigantic and enormous) then the corresponding Adverb form (in this case ginormously) can also be used.“

1999 Gabrielle Charbonnet: Adventure at Walt Disney World Book #7 page 20: “Walt Disney World is ginormous. Even after you’re on the property, you have to drive about fifteen minutes to get to different places.” - wiktionary.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — "It was a ginormous year for the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster. Along with embracing the adjective that combines "gigantic" and "enormous," the dictionary publishers also got into Bollywood, sudoku and speed dating." – USA Today, July 10, 2007, by Adam Gorlick, AP writer

Le Clerc du Tremblay, Francois


capuched (kuh-POOSHd, kuh-POOCHd), adjective

hooded or cowled

capuche (kuh-POOSH, kuh-POOCH), noun

a hood or cowl, especially the long pointed one worn by Capuchins

1590-1600 The word comes from Middle French < Italian, cappuccino


cappuccino, noun

equal parts of expresso and hot milk topped with cinnamon, nutmeg and whipped cream

Word History: The history of the word cappuccino exemplifies how words can develop new senses because of resemblances that the original coiners of the terms might not have dreamed possible. The Capuchin order of friars, established after 1525, played an important role in bringing Catholicism back to Reformation Europe. Its Italian name came from the long pointed cowl, or cappuccino, derived from cappuccio, "hood," that was worn as part of the order's habit. The French version of cappuccino was capuchin (now capucin), from which came English Capuchin. The name of this pious order was later used as the name (first recorded in English in 1785) for a type of monkey with a tuft of black cowl-like hair. In Italian cappuccino went on to develop another sense, "espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream," so called because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin friar. The first use of cappuccino in English is recorded in 1948. – dictionary.com

capuchin, noun

1. an order of monks who wore long pointed cowls.
2. a hooded cloak worn by women
3. a type of central and south American monkey with hair on the head resembling a cowl.

"Sancho II, King of Portugal, rarely translated as Sanctius II in English, nicknamed "the Pious" and "the Caped" or "the Capuched" , the fourth King of Portugal born on September 8, 1207 in Coimbra, was the eldest son of Alfonso II of Portugal." –wikipedia.com

“Again, Between the Cicada and that we call a Grashopper, the differences are very many, as may be observed in themselves, or their descriptions in Mathiolus, Aldrovandus and Muffetus. For first, They are differently cucullated or capuched upon the head and back, and in the Cicada the eyes are more prominent: the Locusts have Antennæ or long horns before, with a long falcation or forcipated tail behind; and being ordained for saltation, their hinder legs do far exceed the other. The Locust or our Grashopper hath teeth, the Cicada none at all; nor any mouth according unto Aristotle: the Cicada is most upon trees; and lastly, the fritinnitus or proper note thereof is far more shrill then that of the Locust; and its life so short in Summer, that for provision it needs not have recourse unto the providence of the Pismire in Winter.” - Sir Thomas Browne, (1646; 6th ed., 1672) Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.iii , p.274

“It was as if someone had poured tons of coffee and milk into the ocean, then switched on a giant blender. Suddenly the shoreline north of Sydney were transformed into the Cappuccino Coast.” Daily Mail, Aug 28, 2007

Word of the Day: Grimalkin (noun)

Pronunciation: [gri-'mal-kin]
Definition: An old female cat or a spiteful jealous old woman.

Usage: You may use this word recklessly in speaking of cats but we recommend caution in its use referring to women.

Suggested Usage: Clearly, the word may be used ailurophilically: "Charity's cats included a grimalkin with a personality quite compatible with her own." But vocabulary-building, like charity, begins in the home, "Christine narrowly escaped the clutches of the grimalkin she once called 'Mother' to become a self-composed, cosmopolitan libertine in her own right."

Etymology: Probably a corruption of British gray + malkin (Shakespeare refers to a "Gray Malkin" in MacBeth). "Malkin" is the nickname for "Maude," from Malde, hence Mal(de) + kin with the diminutive marker also found in "napkin" from French nape "tablecloth" + kin. "Malkin" was sometimes used as a name for a cat but its meaning also commonized to refer to an messy female or a maidservant.

—Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com