Posts Tagged ‘captious’

04
Apr

Word of the Week: ex cathedra

Howdy, Word Nerds! Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was diapason. The father-in-law set me straight on this one–I knew I had seen it before! (If I had remembered the days when I sat beside my mom as she played the church pipe organ, it would have dawned on me!)

According to Merriam-Webster Online, diapason actually has several meanings:

  1. a) a burst of sound

    b)  the principal foundation stop in the organ extending through the complete range of the instrument

    c) :  the entire compass of musical tones

  2.  range or scope

  3. a) tuning fork

    b)  a standard of pitch

Today’s WOW is actually composed of two parts, but is listed as one word in the dictionary. Here are my guesses for ex cathedra:

ex cathedra (eks-kə-ˈthē-drə) 1. a former cathedral 2. the relief of a hospital patient after a catheter is removed *cough* 3. when you finally quit being obsessed by Cathy comic strips

What is your guess for ex cathedra? Post a comment below to let me know!

Wednesday’s Post: Where’s Your Center?

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: diapason; Word of the Week: captious; and Word of the Week: caitiff

21
Mar

Word of the Week: captious

Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was caitiff. According to Merriam-Webster Online caitiff is defined as: cowardly or despicable. I guess certain wealthy animators could have entitled a couple of movies Caitiff Me or a particular character in a beloved children’s story could have been called the Caitiff Lion, but I doubt the author of that story or the animators would have made as much dinero with such titles.

Today’s WOW is captious. For some reason I feel like I should know this word, but its definition is escaping me, so I have a feeling all my Word Nerds are going to deluge me with comments at the end of this post telling me the actual definition for captious.

Here are my 4 guesses (yes, a bonus guess!), so you can officially give me grief about it:

captious (ˈkap-shəs) 1. being held captive 2. captivating 3. like a captain 4. like Hawkeye Pierce