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

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? 

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

Good morning, Word Lovers! Last week’s WOW was solatium. Merriam-Webster Online says that solatium is:  a compensation (as money) given as solace for suffering, loss, or injured feelings. So this means that when I lose my keys for the 49th time, I should get paid??? If so, I think this is a practice which needs more emphasis in our culture!

This week’s WOW is zeitgeber. Since I never took German and this word definitely has that “flavor,” this could get really interesting for my definition guesses:

zeitgeber: (ˈtsīt-ˌgā-bər, ˈzīt-) 1. the acne on Goober’s face (the younger generation just said, “Who’s Goober?”) 2. the person who pops the acne on Goober’s face 3. gawking at acne in Berlin

I warned you it would be interesting. What’s your definition guess for zeitgeber? Go here to tell me all about it!

Wednesday’s Post: Word of the Day!

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: solatium; Word of the Week: crepitate; Word of the Week: deracinate; and Word of the Week: anodyne

Happy Monday, Word Lovers! (Okay, so fake it ’til you make it, if happy Mondays are not your thing. And yes, I fake it a lot.)

Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was eidetic. This word sounded so familiar to me and I just can’t place it, so this one is just bugging me and I don’t like that! Here’s the Merriam-Webster Online definition so I can put myself out of my misery: marked by or involving extraordinarily accurate and vivid recall especially of visual images. If this is so, I think we can assume Sherlock Holmes had an eidetic memory and I’m pretty sure so does the darling daughter. When she was growing up, she was always my “go-to” girl for knowing where I left my car keys.

Today’s word is perdure. Submit your guess below or play the “MIP WOW Definition Guess Contest” by submitting the guess in an email to little old me!  Here are my guesses:

perdure: (pər-ˈdu̇r, –ˈdyu̇r) 1. what a person does when eating Perdue chicken 2. the misspelling of my alma mater 3. how one spells perjure on a message board if they can’t find the letter j.

See–I know your guesses will be better than mine!

Wednesday’s Post:  New Anniversaries…

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: eidetic; Word of the Week: mien; Word of the Week: risible; Word of the Week: pettifogger; and Word of the Week: hoise

WOW Fans: Today I begin a new, fun “perk” of this feature. Those who submit a guess for the Word of the Week (WOW) will be entered into a little (emphasis on the word “little”) ongoing contest to see who gets closest to the real, online Merriam-Webster guess of the word. NO FAIR looking the word up in any sort of dictionary or thesaurus! The person getting closest to the actual definition will receive 5 MIP Points. The person with the most creative definition will receive 3 MIP Points. The person getting the next closest to the correct definition will get 1 MIP Point. (This could happen a lot since many words have 2 or more meanings!)

I thought about having you submit a comment for the guess, but others may copy or put in a similar definition based on previous guesses and “copying” is just not fair. Thus, you must send me an email via the Contact Me page here at MIP to be eligible. The person with the most points by 12-31-14 will receive an MIP t-shirt….even if I have to make the T-shirt myself. When I’m rich and famous, the winner will be able to say they had the very first WOW t-shirt. By 2114 it might be worth enough for the winner to cash it in for a Starbucks latte (which will probably cost $ 500 by then). I would love to give you the Taj Mahal, but it was hard to fit a large Indian castle into my MIP budget this year. Have YOU ever tried to squeeze a building onto a spreadsheet with only 3 columns???

Ready to play? Good! Then, let’s get down to business and explore the true meaning of the last WOW from way back in January. It was orotund which Merriam-Webster defines as: marked by fullness, strength, and clarity of sound. It can also mean pompous or bombastic. (Some of you just looked up one of those last words, didn’t you! Caught ya!) So, a professional opera singer could be orotund two ways–have a great voice and know it a little too well!

Today’s word is hoise. Here are my pathetic excuses for definition attempts of hoise:

hoise: (ˈhȯiz) 1. A resident of New Jersey’s way of saying hose 2. a hefty amount of poise 3. a noise emanating from a horse

What’s your guess? Submit a guess by clicking here.

Wednesday’s Post: By popular demand…my brother’s eulogy…

You might also like: Word of the Week: orotund; Word of the Week: stichomythia; Word of the Week: styptic; and Word of the Week: pinchbeck

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Good morning, dear readers! (Okay, so it’s morning for me…many of you don’t read this until nighttime.  Deal with it, night owls!) Yes, Word of the Week is back! Are you excited? If so, we really must get you better entertainment.

Way back in June the last word we tried to collectively conquer (I love alliteration!) was flehmen. Here’s the Merriam-Webster definition of flehmen: a mammalian behavior (as of horses or cats) in which the animal inhales with the mouth open and upper lip curled to facilitate exposure of the vomeronasal organ to a scent or pheromone. This would probably explain why I’m ridiculously allergic to horses and cats.

Today’s word is balneology. For the newer readers of MIP here are the “rules” for Word of the Week. I will attempt several definitions for the selected word and then you are free to submit definitions of your own in the comment box below. NO ONE, myself included, is allowed to consult a dictionary to get the proper definition–you must guess! “Points” for creativity and humor in your definition guesses! And even more points if you guess correctly or already know the definition. What do the points get you? Absolutely nothing other than my admiration. Hopefully we will all learn some new words and broaden our use of them.

After I have attempted my guesses, then I look up the word online and get you the pronunciation, so my definitions may be way off if I have been mispronouncing the word in my head as I guess! It seems to be nearly impossible to ignore the true definition when getting the pronunciation, so there’s your proof that I also avoid the dictionary when guessing.

balneology: (bal-nē-ˈä-lə-jē) 1. the study of new bowels 2. the study of new Ranger baseballs (That was just for you, DSL!) 3. the study of the ball joint of a knee (That was really reaching…wasn’t it?!)

What do you think balneology means?

Tomorrow’s Post: Have you done your act of kindness this week?

You might also like: Word of the Week: flehmen; Word of the Week: nascent; Word of the Week: canorous;  and Word of the Week: carminative

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Last week’s word was nascent. Merriam-Webster defines nascent as coming or having recently come into existence. I think we can safely say that scandals are rather nascent for Mr. Obama, or at least that’s the way it appears!

This week’s word is flehmen. Here are my definition attempts for it:

flehmen 1. the adjective used to describe Cherries Jubilee. 2. men who reside in a not-so-nice motel 3. the partial mispronunciation of Filet Mignon.

What’s your definition of flehmen? Submit below!

Tomorrow’s Post: A very random act of kindness…

You might also like: Word of the Week: nascent, Word of the Week: canorous, Word of the Week: carminative, Word of the Week: fuliginous, Word of the Week: thimblerig