Good morning, Word Nerds! Last week’s WOW was legerdemain. We had one guess that it meant slight of hand or magic-like. According to Merriam-Webster Online legerdemain means: skill in using your hands to perform magic tricks, so the guess is absolutely correct! I wonder if legerdemain would be useful in making the clutter in my house disappear. Hmmm….

Today’s WOW is longueur. I think there’s a French basis for this word, too, so maybe that will pay off somehow, but I’m not holding my breath over here:

longueur: (lōⁿ-ˈgœr) 1. an interminably long event  2. the act of being vertical 3. a tall person

What’s your guess for longueur? Submit a guess below this post!

Wednesday’s Post: It May Be More than Woman’s Intuition…

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Good morning, Word Lovers! Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was ex cathedra. The father-in-law had a guess for this one again (I need to pick tougher words???). According to Merriam-Webster Online ex cathedra means: by virtue of or in the exercise of one’s office or position. The father-in-law had a more specific take on it, as an official pronouncement from the Pope that is believed to be without error. More than likely that is how ex cathedra is used most often. Too bad my children didn’t think of my parenting as ex cathedra. Hmmm….

Today’s WOW is legerdemain. My French brain is going off right now and it remembers that demain means tomorrow in French, so let’s see how close I get to the correct definition this time:

legerdemain (le-jər-də-ˈmān) 1. the entry one puts into a ledger after receiving an IRS audit notification 2. the hope a short person has for longer legs in the future 3. procrastination

What’s your guess for legerdemain? Put a comment below to let me know your guess!

Wednesday’s Post: Feeling Prayer…

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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?

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Good morning, Word Nerds! Hope you had a blessed Easter weekend!

Last week’s WOW was captious. Merriam-Webster says that captious means: 

1. marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections

2.  calculated to confuse, entrap, or entangle in argument

So, when I berate myself over character flaws, a forgiving God could say I’m being captious! 

Today’s WOW is diapason. I know I’ve heard this before, but I’m blanking on the definition, so I’m sure one of you knows the correct definition! Here are my 3 guesses for diapason:

diapason: (dī-ə-ˈpā-z^ən) 1. a REAL diaper genie (one who pops into your home to change diapers) 2. the diagonal of a trapezoid 3. the unconscious state from dieting for too long

So, have at it! Remind me of the true definition by submitting a comment below this post!

Wednesday’s Post: Out of breath?

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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

Good morning, Word Nerds! Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was calumny. Merriam-Webster Online says that calumny is: 

1. a misrepresentation intended to harm another’s reputation

2. the act of uttering false charges or misrepresentations maliciously calculated to harm another’s reputation

While we had some close guesses for calumny, I don’t think any were spot-on. However, I think we can safely say there’s a lot of calumny going on in the 2016 election!

This week’s WOW is caitiff. Here are my definition guesses for it:

caitiff: (ˈkā-təf) 1. a bailiff named Caitlyn 2. a Pontiff’s cane 3. an iffy cadence

What are your guesses for caitiff? Post a comment here!

Wednesday’s Post: Contemplative Meditation…

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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?

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Sorry I’m a bit tardy on the WOW (Word of the Week) for today. Will you forgive me if I tell you that Brobdingnagian means, according to Merriam-Webster, marked by tremendous size?

The reason why Brobdingnagian is capitalized is because it references a place in Gulliver’s Travels! So, when I ventured that it was a resident from Brobdingnag…I was darn close–since that is the town in the book! As the hubby says, sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut.

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

rhadamanthine: (ra-də-ˈman(t)-thən, -ˈman-ˌthīn) 1. your radish man 2. the process of ratifying a mandate 3. the word “rad” used to excess

What are your guesses for this word? Post a comment to this entry and let me know. Chances are that you will be way closer than mine!

Wednesday’s Post: To Time or Not To Time…

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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 plastron. Plastron means, according to Merriam-Webster, a metal breastplate formerly worn under the hauberk or a quilted pad worn in fencing to protect the chest, waist, and the side on which the weapon is held the ventral part of the shell of a tortoise or turtle consisting typically of nine symmetrically placed bones overlaid by horny plates. What the heck is a hauberk? (Note to Self: Add that one to the WOW Word doc containing my “candidates” for future WOWs.

This week’s WOW once again sends off my French “alarms.” So, here’s what I think it means:

chinoiserie: (shēn-ˈwäz-rē, –ˈwä-zə-; ˌshēn-ˌwäz-ˈrē, –ˌwä-zə-) 1. a store full of china 2. a store full of Asian items 3. a store full of chin straps

What do you think chinoiserie means? Go here to give me your best guess!

Wednesday’s Post: How’s that Early to Rise thing going for you? 

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