Good morning, Word Nerds! Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was anabasis. No one had a guess for anabasis, so let’s find out what Merriam-Webster says about the definition:

1. a going or marching up as in a military advance

2. a difficult and dangerous military retreat

Let me guess: the battle of the Little Big Horn was a bit of an anabasis for Custer.

This week’s WOW is calumny. Here are my guesses for its definition:

calumny (ˈka-ləm-nē) 1. column-y 2. like Callum 3. a quandary created by Californians

What’s your guess about calumny. Submit a comment below this post!

Wednesday’s Post: Journaling as Prayer…

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: anabasis and Word of the Week: thrasonical

Good morning, fellow Word Nerds! Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was thrasonical. Thrasonical, according to Merriam-Webster Online is: of, relating to, resembling, or characteristic of Thraso. Uh-hunh. Okay. Who or what the heck is Thraso???  Thankfully, Merriam-Webster gives us some information regarding Thraso as follows:

Thraso was a blustering old soldier in the comedy Eunuchus, a play written by the great Roman dramatist Terence more than 2,000 years ago. Terence is generally remembered for his realistic characterizations, and in Thraso he created a swaggerer whose vainglorious boastfulness was not soon to be forgotten. Thraso’s reputation as a braggart lives on in “thrasonical,” a word that boasts a history as an English adjective for more than 440 years.

That was your English and History lesson for today. This will improve your next Trivial Pursuit game??? (Does anyone even play Trivial Pursuit anymore?)

This week’s WOW is anabasis. Here are my guesses for anabasis:

anabasis: (ə-ˈna-bə-səs) 1. based on a Frozen heroine 2. basic analogue 3. basal analysis

What are your guesses for anabasis? Submit a comment below this post to let me know! (I have a feeling all you smarties out there are going to know this one!)

Wednesday’s Post: Clarification...

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: thasonical and Word of the Week: bouleversement

Good morning, My Fellow Word Nerds! Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was bouleversement. Merriam-Webster Online defines it as reversal or disorder. If you ask me, the government either needs bouleversement or is already in bouleversement!

This week’s WOW is thrasonical. Here are my guesses for thrasonical:

thrasonical: (thrā-ˈsä-ni-kəl) 1. the sound of anthrax infiltrating the body 2. the effect of thrashing someone 3. the sound emitted from triad chords

What’s your guess for thrasonical? Post it in a comment below this post!

Wednesday’s Post: What’s the Proper Way to Treat All Teachers?

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: bouleversement and Word of the Week: morganatic

Good morning, Word Nerds! Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day weekend!

Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was morganatic. The Merriam-Webster Online definition for it is: of, relating to, a marriage between a member of a royal or noble family and a person of inferior rank in which the rank of the inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do not succeed to titles or entailed property of the nobility/royalty.  The guesses for this word were great attempts, but unfortunately, not close to this definition.

This week’s WOW is bouleversement. Having studied French for 4 years, my guess is that this word originated in France, but I have no idea what it might mean, so here are my guesses:

Good morning, Word Nerds! Last week’s Word of the Week (WOW) was rhadamanthine. Merriam-Webster Online says that rhadamanthine is defined as: rigorously strict or just. I doubt that there is anything remotely rhadamanthine about this blog!

This week’s WOW is morganatic. My definition guesses for this word are as follows:

morganatic: (mȯr-gə-ˈna-tik) 1. resembling Morgan 2. having a humorous, but strict commanding officer demeanor during the Korean Conflict in the 50s (Think M*A*S*H*, my middle-aged compadres) 3. anything having to do with my organs

What’s your guess for morganatic? Post a comment here–try not to make it something that another reader already posted. It’s more fun when we all “play,” so take a stab at it!

Wednesday’s Post: Rule of Life…

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: rhadamanthine and Word of the Week: Brobdingnagian

The best thing about Mondays is that it’s Word of the Week (WOW) time, right? (Don’t argue with me…I like living in my delusional world!)

Last week’s WOW was tintinnabulation. Merriam-Webster Online says that tintinnabulation is: the sound of ringing bells, so the father-in-law wins this round of guessing and wins a hen and maybe two ducks. (Inside family joke, but since the only ones who read this blog are my family…it works, right?) Methinks he may have encountered this word before….hmmmmm….

Today’s WOW is brobdingnagian. Here are my lame guesses for this (since I’m blanking on even a silly guess for it!):

Brobdingnagian (bräb-diŋ-ˈna-gē-ən) 1. a person named Bob or Rob who rings the doorbells of the homes of AARP members 2. a person who robs dinghys 3. a person residing in Brobdingnag

What are your guesses for Brobdingnagian? Post a comment to this post to let me know!

Good morning, Word Nerds! (Wear that badge with honor, gang!) 😀

Last week’s Word of the Week (WOW) was mythomania. A LOT of you had guesses about this one and it was fun to read what you thought about it. Some of you were even using it in a sentence on social media or winking at me in person as you used it. I LOVE THAT! Keep it up! So let’s see how close we got on all those guesses.

Merriam-Webster Online says that mythomania is: an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating. So, most of us got this one right and I stand by my 2nd guess from last week. If that isn’t mythomania, I don’t know what is! Go here if you’re forgetting my 2nd guess.

Today’s WOW is flapdoodle. Here are my guesses for flapdoodle:

flapdoodle (ˈflap-ˌdü-d^əl) 1. an ancient arm tattoo on an AARP member  2. the drawing fighter pilots put on their planes in WWII 3. the ruckus a poodle makes when not content

Howdy, Word Lovers! Last week’s WOW was eolian. Merriam-Webster Online reports that eolian is: borne, deposited, produced, or eroded by the wind. Could it be that Texan bravado is eolian???? It sure is windy enough here for one to consider it as a theory.

Today’s WOW is fatidic. Here are my definition guesses for fatidic:

fatidic (fā-ˈti-dik, fə-) 1. being allergic to fat (If this is the definition, please let me become fatidic immediately.) 2. the acidity of fat 3. being psychic

What’s your guess for fatidic? Submit it here.

Wednesday’s Post: Watch Thoughts

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: eolian; Word of the Week: chatoyant; Word of the Week: nonage; and Word of the Week: chinoiserie

If you think you missed the WOW post last week, you didn’t. Last week just wasn’t my week! But here is the Merriam-Webster Online definition for chatoyant from 2 weeks ago: having a changeable luster or color with an undulating narrow band of white light. Perhaps one should call their dermatologist if he or she has chatoyant skin??? Or to Ghostbusters???

Today’s Word of the Week (WOW) is eolian. My definition guesses for eolian are as follows:

eolian (ē-ˈō-lē-ən, –ˈōl-yən) 1. linoleum that has lost its lint 2. linoleum that has lost its chatoyant qualities 3. one who insists on using margarine

What’s your guess for eolian? Submit it here to see if you are right!

Wednesday’s Post: Jesus is a Nomad…

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: chatoyant; Word of the Week: nonage; Word of the Week: chinoiserie; and Word of the Week: plastron

It’s a little difficult to do your WOW post when there’s no internet service at your house. I had to remind myself how to do things without wifi yesterday. When your memory is already sketchy, retrieving information from the early 1970s gives me one large pain in my neck and head.

To add insult to injury, it was once again time for me to come up with a new list of words I don’t know. Merriam-Webster Online recently got a face lift and of course, it’s now a lot harder to find their Word of the Day Archives that I use for this purpose. Argh.

I probably should address my tendency towards procrastination. I’ll work on that tomorrow.

Anyway, you have my apologies for not posting “normally”. Here’s a very belated WOW post:

Last week’s WOW was chinoiserie. Merriam-Webster says chinoiserie means: a style in art (as in decoration) reflecting Chinese qualities or motifs; also:  an object or decoration in this style. So, one of my guesses was getting close to the correct meaning! Woohoo!

This week’s WOW is nonage. Here are my guesses for nonage:

nonage: (ˈnä-nij, ˈnō-) 1. when Vonage has no cell signal 2. what MaryAnn would like to do in her old age physically 3. that which contributes to nothingness (what?!)

What’s your guess for nonage? Go here to tell me!

Wednesday’s Post: Is there any benefit to a night owl getting up earlier?

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: chinoiserie; Word of the Week: plastron; Word of the Week: abecedarian; and Word of the Week: zeitgeber