Sunday, July 08, 2007

Kay's Wonderful World of Weird Words #2

My love affair with the language continues and I haven't done this in a while and have some really neat new words for y'all! As usual, I've been trying to work them into my writing or conversation. However, since one is supposed to gear one's writing to 10th grade level (the 10th grade I went through or the one kids today get?) and using them in conversation brings a lot of blank stares and observations that I've lost my mind. I'll just share them with y'all. Each left me thinking which is always a good thing. Hope y'all enjoy them!

polymath: A person of great or varied learning; one acquainted with various subjects of study.
I really like this word. It's almost perfect for me since I'm pretty much known as a walking compendium of useless information and even useful information now and again. However, my favorite polymath is Leonardo da Vinci whose work in so many areas is a legacy to us today.

eructation: The act of belching; a belch.

I never knew there was a formal word for this. Can't you just see a sign as you enter somewhere like church that reads: "Please stifle your eructations"?

schadenfreude: delight in another person's misfortune.

Maybe it's my Bavarian roots, but I love this word. It has a certain je ne sais quoi and I think we saw a barrage of this during the latest debacles of Paris Hilton.

cineast: a devotee of motion pictures; also : movie maker.

Sounds classier than movie buff, huh? It's pronunciation, SIN-EE-AST, however. might label one as in need of a trip to the confessional.

mythomania: an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating.

Don't know about you ladies out there but I've dated a couple of these types. Think maybe we all know some politicians with this disease --combined with megalomania it would make a dangerous critter.

And last but not least . . .

hemidemisemiquaver: a musical note with the time value of 1/64 of a whole note; a sixty-fourth note.

This word is British is origin where they call eight-notes quavers. I took music lessons as a child and I don't recall any notes shorter than a sixteenth note. According to Merriam Webster, a sixty-fourth note is the fastest note commonly played. I suppose there are lots of these in a piece like "Flight of the Bumblebee" and I hope some of you gentle bloggers will enlighten me on this as music isn't an area of expertise for me. The Brits also use this word humorously as in:

And on that note -- pun definitely intended -- this post is ending not a hemidemisemiquaver too soon! LOL!!!!!!!

Happy Blogging!!!!!!!!

Kay

5 comments:

  1. Paris Hilton brings out the schadenfreud in everyone!

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  2. The only word I knew was schadenfreude. Thanks for some new vocabulary. Where in the heck did you get these words? When I was a kid, I always loved the vocabulary page in Reader's Digest. Did you read that, too?

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  3. Anonymous4:36 PM

    Ooohhh... I can use some of these. I had just run across "mythomania" myself. Of course, in my otherwise view of the world, I thought it applied primarily to those of the female persuasion, like my ex-wives...

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  4. Like your fun with words here. Sure, I'll be using these in my day-to-day conversations! ;-)

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  5. believe it or not, the hemidemisemiquaver is a word in common usage at our house...that's what comes of having a child with a prodigious musical talent (she can play ANY brass instrument and has a 4 1/2 octave sophrano voice!)

    I love the sound of words....french, german, russian and english!! Just can't spell worth a d***, so my dictionary is truly beat to death every time I start writing anything, and Babble Fish is my friend!!

    Thanks for sharing these words!!

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