flume
One of the only rides I will willingly go on at an amusement park is the log ride, technically called a “log flume”. Everything else gives me gas.
samizdat
I came across this word on the back cover of Eye of Argon, universally accepted as the worst piece of fantasy writing ever (possibly the worst piece of writing ever, full stop). In essence, it means “self-published”, but there’s an under-meaning of the courage to put work of your own raw, unvarnished work forward. There’s also a sense of urgency involved. Beautiful word.
keffiyeh
A friend from IUP got me a keffiyeh while he was in New York one time. It was a very cool gift, and I wore it all the time (as a scarf. in winter. which is nine months out of the year in Indiana, PA). I still have it, though it has seen better days (the only older piece of clothing I have is red nylon underwear, a birthday gift from a dear friend when we were 19 (!!!)). I’d like to get another one just to prove that it’s a fucking scarf and not a cry for a second Shoa.
sphygmomanometer
This is the proper name for a blood pressure taker. Who knew?
kerslopis, squish mitten and minge
Once again, I think men get shafted (so to speak) when it comes to cool names for human sexy bits. Women get “kaslopis” and “squish mitten” among many other pet names, whereas men have to be content with “lap ham” and “cock”. It hardly seems fair.
Women also have better clothes.
hybristophilia
I love “Criminal Minds”! From last night’s episode, I learned this new word which explains the phenomenon of why otherwise sane people marry Death Row convicts. Even more interesting, it’s derived from “hubris”, a hallmark of Greek and Shakespearean tragedies.
rochambeau
And all this time I thought it meant being kicked in the nuts. Little did I know!
hypnagogia
There is a term for all those pre-sleep and pre-waking experiences I’ve been having so often these days. Apparently, in hypnagogia it is not unusual to hear one’s name be called or to come away with bits and pieces of conversation. When I first read about this, I thought it might also encompass the “frozen wakefulness” I get sometimes, but that is actually sleep paralysis. At least I don’t have night terrors.
cachectic
Last summer, my father passed away from metastatic non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In essence, the cancer attached itself to his organs and instead of destroying them, ate off of them, taking away his energy a little more every day. This is word for that.
obstreperous
I read this work in Dexter by Design, which I will excuse myself now by saying that while I have read all the “Dexter” novels, a co-worker lent them to me. There’s nothing wrong with the novels, but there’s also not much right about them. However, I’m a little tired of books that have 50+ characters and cross the span of several hundred years. I’m saga’d-out. “Dexter” is a nice departure from all that.
Umweltverschmutzung
Because that’s just where I am today.
prolapse
After seeing the following video on my favorite gay blog Joe.My.God
with New Hampshire state Representitive Nancy Elliott saying that same-sex marriage should be repealed because “we’re talking about taking the penis of a man and putting it in the rectum of another man and wriggling it around in excrement. And you have to think, would I want that to be done to ME?”, I read with glee Jeffrey’s response
O.M.F.G. Get out of our bedrooms, you stupid, bleeding cunt!
And HELL YES, I want my husband’s cock up my ass. As for the wiggling around part, maybe YOU are loose enough for that, but don’t project your own near-prolapse on the rest of us, honey.
*hairtoss*
which is quite the image.
dormer
Weeks ago, I got a wild hair and decided to have my considerable but useless attic space made into an upper den accessible from the master bedroom. However, when trying to explain to a co-worker about “windows that stick out”, I could not for the life of me remember what they’re called. “Dormers.” They’re called “dormers.” I’m still picturing a spiral staircase going from my bedroom to a private den all my own where I can look out on the dead lawn in the middle of summer. Of course, I live alone, so how much more space and/or privacy do I need? And what if the contractors found my porn?
exonumia
I have no story about this word other than it’s completely new to me and fun to say.
space cookies
I can’t stop listening to the soundtrack for “Bare: a Rock Opera” mostly because of how evocative the story is (gay boys at a Catholic boarding high school. Yeah. Really, has anything else in my life defined and informed me more than this?), but also because (Lord help me for saying this) the songs are so catchy. “Space cookies” comes from the song “Birthday, Bitch!”
kvell
I have a fascination for Yiddish and all things Jewish. All my friends know that. I’ve been accused of being a matzo queen, though I think I just prefer non-white guys. “Kvell” is one of those words I like to drop into conversation (along with “schmutz” and “schtupp” and “fakakta“). I heard this word used last night during a re-run of “House”. House said he kvelled when Cameron finally came to accept that everybody lies. I think I’ll really have arrived when I use “fartatshish” (“sloppy”) correctly in a sentence.
abattoir
There is apparently a chophouse in Atlanta called “Abattoir” that serves guests “the use of locally-raised proteins to produce high-quality, affordable food.” I admire how up-front they are about the name being from the French for “slaughterhouse”, but I really enjoy how they refer to meat as “protein”. Thanks, “Top Chef”! You’ve done for meat what “open concept” has done for real estate.
heigth
I’ve been using this word for ages, and tonight in an email to my brother about the dimensions of a new header he’s making for me (!!!) spellcheck kept marking it as wrong. I finally had to look it up, and found out there is no such word. Maybe it’s a Northeastern thing, like perogie and Lake Effect Snow.
trews
I’ve been reading The Smart Aleck’s Guide to American History and “trews” came up in a joke about the Founding Fathers and “Yankee Doodle”.
urine scald
I recently adopted a special needs cat named Andy, who, because of a dog attack, is unable to posture correctly to go potty. The vet warned me to keep him clean in order to avoid urine scald.
EMDR
A friend of mine mentioned this to me a few months ago. To say anymore would be breaking a confidence.
Alien space bats
I found this word while trying desperately to remember the fancy name for the historical fiction genre. I’m pretty sure it starts with “meta” (but, these days, what doesn’t?). I did come across “uchronia“, but that wasn’t the exact word I wanted. Still pretty cool, though.
Supersessionism
In my continuing fascination for all things God, I came across this word the other day. For being such a common topic of discussion, I’m surprised no one ever uses this word. Same with “theodicy“.
inappentence
I came across this word while researching why my cat is refusing to eat. It sounds much more urgent than “loss of appetite”.
Bass-O-Matic
This was said tonight by a competitor on Food Network’s “Chopped”. She used it as part of her justification as to why she hand-mixed a salad after slicing her finger with a knife. “It wasn’t all Bass-o-matic,” she said. I still wouldn’t have eaten her salad if God himself told me she was DDF/HIV-/certified cootie-free.
crozzle
I read this word in The Road:
The days sloughed past uncounted and uncalendared. Along the interstate in the distance long lines of charred and rusting cars. The raw rims of the wheels sitting in a stiff gray sludge of melted rubber, in blackened rings of wire. The incinerate corpses shrunk to the size of a child and propped on the bare springs of the seats. Ten thousand dreams ensepulchred within their crozzled hearts. They went on. Treading the dead world under like rats on a wheel. The nights dead still and deader black. So cold. They talked hardly at all. He coughed all the time and the boy watched him spitting blood. Slumping along. Filthy, ragged, hopeless. He’d stop and lean on the cart and the boy would go on and then stop and look back and he would raise his weeping eyes and see him standing their in the road looking back at him from some unimaginable future, glowing in that waste like a tabernacle.
