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Howdy, Word Lovers! Last week’s Word of the Week was sangfroid. According to Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary, sangfroid means: the ability to stay calm in difficult or dangerous situations. I seem to panic when the situation is a mere trifle, but generally am rather sangfroid when the danger is real. Perhaps sangfroid is just another word for being in shock???

Today’s word is meretricious and here’s my guess:

meretricious: (mer-ə-ˈtri-shəs) 1. vicious merit 2. a rather run-of-the-mill trick 3. looking delicious in the mirror

What’s your guess? Submit a comment now!

Tomorrow’s Post: What act of kindness did you do for Lauren Rousseau?

You might also like: Word of the Week: sangfroid; Word of the Week: eurytopic; Word of the Week: balneology; and Word of the Week: nascent

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Howdy, word lovers! Last week’s word was eurytopic. According to Merriam-Webster, eurytopic means tolerant of wide variation in one or more environmental factors. The daughter guessed that it had something to do with being perfect and she was pretty close to the right definition! I must be eurytopic because I tolerate the messy condition of my youngest’s room, right? Thankfully, I won’t have to be eurytopic much longer since he departs for college later this month. But perhaps we should pray that his future roomie has this quality???

Today’s word is sangfroid.  My “French” alarm is going off on this one, so if these definition guesses don’t make much sense, then blame it on those croissant people.

sangfroid: (säⁿ-ˈf(r)wä) 1. to be sad about being frozen. 2. the song Freud sang poorly 3. to sing about being cold.

What’s your guess?

Tomorrow’s Post: What did you do in honor of Avielle?

You might also like: Word of the Week: eurytopic; Word of the Week: balneology, Word of the Week: flehmen; and Word of the Week: nascent

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Did you miss me? My heart decided to give me some more fits for the past few days, so I have been taking meds and resting a lot. Sorry for the delay of this post! So, let’s not delay anymore and get to the Word of the Week!

Last week’s word was balneology. Merriam-Webster defines balneology as: the science of the therapeutic use of baths. I probably didn’t know it because I tend to be a shower gal. Does contemplating your navel in the shower count as balneology??? Hmmm….

This week’s word is eurytopic. Here are my guesses for it:

eurytopic: (yur-i-ˈtä-pik) 1. any topic pertaining to Europe 2. being excessively snobby for no apparent reason 3. only seeing Europe when you look at a map

What are your guesses for eurytopic? Submit a comment below!

Tomorrow’s Post:  What would you do to honor someone who loves horses?

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

My family is just too smart. The DD says that canorous (the Word of the Week for last week) means melodious. And she would be absolutely accurate. She said she learned the word while studying for her GRE exam. So glad to know that the hefty amount of cash I laid out for GRE studying materials paid off. But, apparently, the stuff I used to prepare to take MY GRE exam was not as useful. Hmmm…do you think I can get a refund???

Today the Word of the Week is nascent. Here are my un-GRE-like attempts at determining the meaning for nascent:

nascent: (na-s^ənt) 1. the smell of a horse. 2. the rather nasty odor coming from a navy midshipman. 3. the amount of money an investor has left after investing in stocks listed as part of the NASDAQ.

So, what’s your guess for the nascent? Submit below!

Tomorrow’s Post: What did you do to honor Jack?

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

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Last week’s Word of the Week was carminative. the DFIL (Darling Father-in-Law) is guessing it has something to do with the color carmine. Good thought, but unfortunately, wrong. But he’s in good company (if he considers me good company!). According to Merriam-Webster carminative means: expelling gas from the stomach or intestines so as to relieve flatulence or abdominal pain or distension. Uh-hunh. I’m so very glad I chose to use this word last week. Hmmm…so this means, once again, that my guesses were full of “hot air,” right???

This week’s word is canorous. Here are my guesses for canorous:

canorous: 1. the title of a store where you can buy canned goods 2. the ability to get things done (Obviously, this word would never apply to our federal government.) 3. someone having the abilities/talents of a canter

So, what’s your guess for canorous?

Tomorrow’s Post: Big jump in the total of MIP Acts of Kindness!

You might also like: Word of the Week: carminative, Word of the Week: fuliginous, Word of the Week: thimblerig, Word of the Week: bosky, Word of the Week: nepenthe 

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Last week’s Word of the Week was fuliginous. According to Merriam-Webster online fuliginous means sooty or obscure and murky. It could also mean having a dark or musky color. I think all those definitions probably symbolize the murky nature of my mind while attempting to guess at the definition for fuliginous.

Today’s word is carminative. Here’s my fuliginous definition guesses for carminative:

carminative: (kär-ˈmi-nə-tiv) 1. the matchbox cars my son left on the living room for me to stub my bare foot on at night (But they were all perfectly parked, so at least he was organized about injuring his mother???) 2. Anything related to the opera “Carmen” 3. anything related to a boxcar on a train (Sorry…I can’t make this humorous no matter how hard I try…it’s Monday…give me a break.)

What’s your guess? Submit it here!

Tomorrow’s Post: What did you do for your act of kindness this week?

You might also like: Word of the Week: fuliginous, Word of the Week: thimblerig, Word of the Week: bosky, Word of the Week: nepenthe

Last week’s Word of the Week was thimblerig. Reader Stonesmama says that a thimblerig is Thumbelina’s souped-up monster truck that she drives over thimblecars. (Maybe she should be writing this blog???) However, Merriam-Webster would disagree with that definition. The online definition is: a swindling trick in which a small ball or pea is quickly shifted from under one to another of three small cups to fool the spectator guessing its location. In fact the person doing this trick is called a thimblerigger. I’d love to see that as the previous job title on an employment application!

This week’s word is fuliginous. God bless you. When you say fuliginous, doesn’t it sound like someone sneezing???? So, here are my definition attempts:

fuliginous: (fyu-ˈli-jə-nəs) 1. the sound made by a human being while sneezing. 2. a flexible foolish person. 3. the feeling one has after eating 2 Thanksgiving dinners back-to-back.

What are your definition ideas for fuliginous?

Tomorrow’s Post: What did you do for Grace?

You might also like: Word of the Week: thimblerig, Word of the Week: baba, Word of the Week: bosky, Word of the Week: fanfaronade,Word of the Week: zarzuela.

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Last week’s Word of the Week was bosky. Bosky means having abundant trees or shrubs. In other words most of Texas is sans bosky.

This week’s word is thimblerig. As usual, submit your guess for thimblerig either via my contact page or through a comment below.

thimblerig: (ˈthim-bəl-rig) 1. the necessary equipment needed to hoist the Statue of Liberty’s thimble, if she had one 2. the size of a fire ant’s truck 3. the amount of oil generated from a drilling rig in downtown Manhattan.

Tomorrow’s Post: What was your act of kindness for this week?

You might also like: Word of the Week: bosky; Word of the Week: nepenthe; Word of the Week: provenience; Word of the Week: zarzuela

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Last week’s word was nepenthe. Can I just state, for the record, that it was darn hard to come up with definitions for nepenthe??? How about you? Did you think it was difficult, too?

The real definition of nepenthe is as follows: a potion used by the ancients to induce forgetfulness of pain or sorrow. Apparently, I need a nepenthe for my inability to define nepenthe. Maybe I just need more coffee? There’s always room for more coffee, right? (Kinda like that one dessert Bill Cosby used to promote!)

Today’s word is bosky. I chose it because we live near a river (In our town it more resembles a stream or brook.) with a similar name. I expect to see a lot of comments from my local readers on this one.

bosky: (ˈbäs-kē) 1. a brook or stream pretending to be a river. 2. an overfed duck that stalks walkers/runners as they train for the next long-distance run/walk beside a brook or stream pretending to be a river. 3. a key belonging to a boss

What are your guesses for bosky?

Tomorrow’s Post: How did you honor Ana?

Good morning, Word Lovers! Last week’s word was provenience and the PH knew this word and emailed me to guess it. (It’s so annoying when he’s right.)

Provenience means origin or source, particularly as it relates to the ownership of works of art. I knew it sounded familiar to me, but I just couldn’t retrieve the meaning from my rusty old brain. So, if you, like the PH, had it on the tip of your tongue, congratulations for not needing rust remover.

Today’s word is nepenthe. Let’s see if the PH can get 2 in a row. Here are my silly guesses:

nepenthe: (nə-ˈpen(t)-thē) 1. doing a pentathlon completely on your knees. 2. the repentance that comes when you deliberately lisp around someone who stutters 3. how one speaks after taking crystal meth (Sorry…the counseling background crept in here.)

What are yours? I love to hear what you think, so submit away. (No fair cheating!)

Tomorrow’s Post: What did you do to honor Jesse?