This week the WOW (Word of the Week) comes to you mid-air as I jet to a family reunion vacation with my hubby’s family. More about that later on in the week!

Last week’s WOW was preterit. Just as a side note: I pick my WOWs from the Merriam-Webster “Word of the Day” feature. And while I adore Merriam-Webster Online most days, there are occasions where I’m a little perturbed with it. That would be today’s sentiment, because the m-w.com definition of preterit is bygone or former and that’s the archaic definition. Are there any modern definitions? Nope. So, why is Merriam-Webster Online making it a Word of the Day? Please. Someone tell me! Grr.

This week’s WOW is kickshaw. Let’s hope there’s a modern definition for this one!  Here are my definition guesses for it:

kickshaw (ˈkik-ˌshȯ)   1. what happens to Mr. Shaw when he’s mean to a Texas woman 2. how a stutterer says rickshaw (I just irritated my daughter, the SLPA, with that one.) 3. an Asian disco dance What’s your guess for kickshaw?  Either submit your guess below in the Comment section or send me an email here.

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: preterit; Word of the Week: offal; Word of the Week: shinplaster; Word of the Week: perdure; and Word of the Week: eidetic

Book Club Readers: Are you ready to read Songs in the Key of Solomon tomorrow? You do NOT want to miss this one–trust me. Click here for the MIP Suggested Reading Plan.

Happy Monday, WOW Lovers! Last week’s Word of the Week (WOW) was offal and two long-time MIP readers chimed in with two correct definitions! And without knowing it, they submitted their guesses as father and son! I’m going to have to declare the son the winner, though, because he gave the first definition listed in Merriam-Webster, while “Dad” submitted the 2nd most common definition. So, congrats to Bruce for the winning guess and congrats to John on an honorable mention definition guess. I have a sneaky suspicion that there’s going to be some father and son razzing about this in the weeks to come. Here are those correct guesses, along, with a 3rd one as defined by Merriam-Webster Online:

offal: 1. the organs (such as the liver or kidney) of an animal that are used for food 2. the waste or by-product of a process: as trimmings of a hide, the by-products of milling used especially for stock feeds, or the viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal removed in dressing 3. rubbish

No matter how you define it, if you ask me, offal sounds awful.

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

preterit: (‘pre-tə-rət) 1. the preparations one makes to tear it up, whatever “it” is. 2. achieving before it’s necessary to achieve it 3. an idiot who can’t spell prefer correctly

What’s your definition guess for preterit? Click here to submit it. Maybe you can outdo Bruce and John this week! 🙂

Wednesday’s Post: The Odd Days of July…

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: offal; Word of the Week: shinplaster; Word of the Week: perdure; Word of the Week: eidetic; and Word of the Week: mien

Howdy, Word Lovers! It’s time for a new Word of the Week (WOW). Last week’s WOW was perdure and Merriam-Webster Online says that perdure means to continue to exist. Sounds very much like endure, hunh? But, I suppose endure carries with it the connotation that one continues to exist through pain or adversity and perdure does not. Thus, we could say that blue jeans perdure while my bottom endures their tight, low-waisted, non-flattering fit most days. 

This week’s WOW is shinplaster. This was just too fun a word to ignore, so here are my guesses for shinplaster: shinplaster:

(ˈshin-ˌplas-tər) 1. a permanent state of anyone who plasters for a living 2. how an arthritic shin feels on any given Monday 3. the shaky nature of a drunkard’s legs after a party weekend So, what is your guess for shinplaster? Be sure to let me know!

Wednesday’s Post: Spam Themes That MIP Seems to Attract

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

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

Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was pettifogger. Merriam-Webster Online says that pettifogger is: a lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable or one given to quibbling over trifles. Ouch. I think that last part could apply to me when I’m insisting my kids keep their elbows off the dinner table!

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

risible: (ˈri-zə-bəl) 1. the ability for bread to rise 2. the ability of a woman to be Stockard Channing in Grease 3. the factor for developing Reye’s Syndrome after taking pain relievers

What’s your guess? Remember that the most accurate guess gets 5 points. The most creative guess gets 3 points and the second most accurate guess gets 1 point. Use this page to submit your guess. Those with the most points at the end of the year gets an MIP one-of-a-kind t-shirt! You know you need yet another t-shirt!

Wednesday’s Post: The Odd Days of May…

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: pettifogger; Word of the Week: hoise; Word of the Week: orotund; and Word of the Week: stichomythia

Picture picture

Last week’s WOW was hoise. Merriam-Webster online says that hoise is the same as hoist! So, why do we even have this word??? Apparently, it’s an older version of hoist. Someday I have a feeling hoise will be replaced by some abbreviation on FB or Instagram.

Today’s word is pettifogger. One reader (very near and dear to my heart) is saying, “Hallelujah!” She suggested that we make pettifogger a WOW a long, long time ago when she heard it in court. She is an attorney and someone referred to her as a pettifogger. Since she didn’t know the word, she wound up looking it up and sent me an email suggesting it should be on WOW. I didn’t know it, either, but since I pick out a long list of WOWs at one time, it took a little while to get it into the WOW line-up.

Oddly enough, a few days later, I watched the movie Lincoln and pettifogger was used in the movie! So, perhaps it’s a word we should all know! Here are my guesses for pettifogger:

pettifogger:  (ˈpe-tē-ˌfȯ-gər, –ˌfä-) 1. a small fog machine 2. a person who blurs arguments by picking on small, irrelevant details 3. municipal spraying of neighborhoods to get rid of tiny mosquitoes.

What’s your guess for pettifogger? Submit your definition to put you in the running for a one-of-a-kind MIP t-shirt at the end of the year! Remember–creativity and accuracy count for points!

Wednesday’s Post: An Eclectic Bookshelf…

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

For those of you who follow the Word of the Week blog feature on Mondays, we’ve passed a small milestone. When I launched Word of the Week, I made a list of words I didn’t know all the way up to last week on a whiteboard in my writing office. We are now into a new list! Perhaps trivial to most, but significant to me. Thanks for giving all of your creative ideas for the definitions of each week’s word. So, on to the new list!

Last week’s Word of the Week was zarzuela. A zarzuela is a usually comic Spanish operetta. I don’t know about the Spanish operetta part, but it’s pretty comical when I’m typing zarzuela.

This week’s word is provenience. I think I should know this word, but if I do, it’s escaping me this morning. Any ideas? Submit them below. Here’s my take on what it might mean. No fair cheating!

provenience: (prə-ˈvē-nyən(t)s) 1. inconvenience 2. being fond of Venice 3. being fond of mothers intervening wherever needed

Tomorrow’s Post: What did you do in memory of Nancy Lanza?