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

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…

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

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:

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…

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

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! (Own it!) Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was flapdoodle. The DD got this one immediately. Merriam-Webster Online officially says that flapdoodle means foolish words. Her definition was “nonsensical words” and an alternate definition for flapdoodle is nonsense. So, she’s pretty spot on with her guess.

This week’s WOW is tintinnabulation. (Try and say that 5 times fast.) Here are my guesses for it:

tintinnabulation (tin-tə-ˌna-byə-ˈlā-shən) 1. the ambulatory movement of a famed German Shepherd 2. what transpires after the three little porcine creatures refer to their chins 3. the sound resonating from kicking empty metal containers of fruit or vegetables

What’s your guess for tintinnabulation? Post a comment to this post! No fair looking it up first.

Wednesday’s Post: God Isn’t a Microwave…

You May Also Like: Word of the Week: flapdoodle and Word of the Week: mythomania

Howdy, MIP readers! Did you miss me? I missed you! I’m revving up the blog again and plan to get back to my 3 weekly blog posts. On Wednesday I will explain why I’ve been gone from MIP and why I’m now back on it!

Those of you who have read MIP from its inception will know that Monday posts are all about a word I don’t know from the Merriam-Webster online site. I first tell all of you the REAL definition of the previous week’s word and then take 3 stabs at trying to define the present week’s word.

You can “play along” yourself by commenting below the post. Many of you already know the word, so don’t lose your opportunity to show me up! But, even if you don’t know, just have some fun with it and see if you can make me laugh out loud (Yes, LOL) at this end. Bonus points for making me ROFL (roll on the floor laughing).

Don’t want anyone to know who you are on here? Just give yourself a nickname. But, send me an email explaining who you are (in case I don’t figure it out myself) because I reserve the right to delete comments from an internet undesirable type (a hacker, spammer, the IRS or other governmental agency that annoys the tar out of me) first.

The last time there was a WOW was way back in April of 2015, so here’s the definition of panjandrum from that post: a powerful personage or pretentious official. I swear on a stack of Bibles that I didn’t look up the definition before my little jab at the government. But, can we safely agree that government officials are most likely panjandrums??? (Did I hear you say, “Amen. Preach it, sista,”???? I thought so.)

This week’s WOW is mythomania. Here are my guesses (and no fair looking up the word in any version of a search engine or dictionary!):

mythomania (mi-thə-ˈmā-nē-ə, -nyə) 1. the insanity from being fixated on Greek mythology 2. the 2016 Presidential election (I’m fixated on the government today, hunh?) 3. the enthusiasm resulting from loving doric, ionic and corinthian columns a bit too much

What’s your guess or guesses? Submit them below!

Wednesday’s Post: Where Have You Been, Miss MaryAnn?

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