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umbrage (UHM-brij), n.: suspicion of injury or wrong; offense; resentment

 

"However, as to his having called me a blockhead, it's not what I take umbrage at."

 

"A less kindly-tempered man would have taken umbrage at the tone of this letter."

 

From the Latin for "shade" (umbra), umbrage once had a literal meaning ("shade; shadow; foliage"), which is now obsolete. That a word meaning "shadow or foliage" could turn into one meaning "offense or resentment" is not really as unlikely as it might at first seem. The logic behind the change can be more readily understood with the help of an extended defintion: "umbrage: the feeling of being overshadowed; jealousy of another, as standing in one's light or way; hence, suspicion of injury or wrong; offense; resentment."

 

Umbrage is related to umbrella, which is Italian for "little shade," and which, etymologically at least, is properly for protection from the sun rather than the rain.

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beat u

 

http://www.englishforums.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=9837

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i pick the words. that's why my name is in the title.

 

quixotic \kwik-SOT-ik\, adjective:

1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals.

2. Capricious; impulsive; unpredictable.

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i pick the words. that's why my name is in the title.

 

quixotic \kwik-SOT-ik\, adjective:

1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals.

2. Capricious; impulsive; unpredictable.

that is a great word, keep this going! please.

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equivocate \ih-KWIV-uh-kayt\, intransitive verb:

To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or to avoid committing oneself to anything definite.

 

Equivocate is from Medieval Latin aequivocare, "to be called by the same name," from Latin aequus, "equal" + vocare, "to call," from vox, "voice."

 

The witness shuffled, equivocated, pretended to misunderstand the questions.

--Thomas Babington Macaulay, History of England

 

By equivocating, hesitating, and giving ambiguous answers, she effected her purpose.

--Harriet Martineau, Letters from Ireland

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what's this thread? new words, or nifty words, or long words?

 

unicursal

epact

obverse

le dedale

equivocate's good, but i really like disengenuous

 

"Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber boshaft ist er nicht --

God is subtle, but not malicious."

 

-- Albert Einstein

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what's this thread? new words, or nifty words, or long words?

 

unicursal

epact

obverse

le dedale

equivocate's good, but i really like disengenuous

 

"Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber boshaft ist er nicht --

God is subtle, but not malicious."

 

-- Albert Einstein

whatever word i feel like posting

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Ah, okay, alles ist klar now.

 

I misspelled my last word. It's *disingenuous* . I hate it when I'm not perfect. But I'm not always perfect. There was this one time in 1989.

 

here's a nerdy word, but i love it, I could speak it aloud all day: directrix. It's a Thing in a parabola.

 

The Dutch mathematician Jan deWitt invented it in the 17th century. Later (and this doesn't happen often to mathematicians) he became the political leader of the Netherlands. An angry mob tore him and his brother to pieces. That was the last Dutch political assassination until an animal-rights activist murdered Pym Fortuyn, who had just surprised everyone by winning national elections on an anti-immigration platform about five years ago.

 

plinth

 

two wonderful Aussie words: yobbo and hool. One of them is what every father prays will never ring the doorbell to call for his daughter to go out on a date on friday night. The other is the same, but has a loud fast old hot-rod car.

 

two perversions: troilism and coprophilia.

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acquiesce \ak-wee-ES\, intransitive verb:

To accept or consent passively or without objection -- usually used with 'in' or 'to'.

 

Acquiesce comes from Latin acquiescere, "to give oneself to rest, hence to find one's rest or peace (in something)," from ad, "to" + quiescere, "to rest, to be or keep quiet."

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lately it has been seeming that i have grown so very very old that nobody knows what

 

grok

 

means anymore. But boy lemme tell you young whippersnappers (and what the hell IS a whippersnapper, anyway??), there was maybe a 5-year period back in Ancient Times, when Dinosaurs roamed the Earth, when EVERYBODY knew grok, and used it in their common everyday speech.

 

"Yeah, well, I grok that."

 

Anybody know what the most asked-for word definition was last year for the on-line Merriam-Webster dictionary site? Very cool word, everybody wanted to know what the hell it was. Maybe somebody here knows.

 

jameskpolka the junior geezer

 

"QuickBASIC does everything C++ does,

only backwards and in high heels."

(apologies to Fred & Ginger)

 

News, Weather & Sports from Vleeptron:

http://vleeptron.blogspot.com

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You want more? Huh, Word Boy? You want more? Okay, I give you more:

 

This only looks French, but because there is no equivalent in English, high-tone high-class upscale English speakers and writers are forced against their will to use it, too:

 

esprit de l’escalier

 

Okay here is what it is. You have a big screaming argument in the office with your Evil Boss and tell him to take this job and shove it where the sun don't shine and other eloquent rhetoric, and then you turn on your heel and stomp out of the office building for the very last time.

 

As you ride down the escalator for the very last time, you remember a Perfect Insult that you had really really wished to tell your Evil Nasty Former Boss. A wonderful insult, that would have almost certainly killed him from Shame.

 

But while you were screaming at him, you forgot.

 

The thing you meant to say to him that you remember as you are riding the Down Escalator is called esprit de l’escalier.

 

How do I make the Smilies work?

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