Howdy, Word Lovers!

WOW (Word of the Week) is baaaaaaaack! I’m going to start “fresh” and instead of me giving the true definition for the previous WOW, I’m will simply start with my guesses for sacerdotal. Don’t forget to comment below if you have a guess or already know the definition of it!

sacerdotal (sa-sər-ˈdō-tᵊl) 1. doting on a saucer 2. a story involving soccer 3. something tasting like saccharin.

No fair looking up the definition!

Wednesday’s Post: Logging some more Rhythms…

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: interpellate and Word of the Week: infrangible

Book Club Lovers: Go here to see the September 2014 MIP Book Club Selection! The MIP reading plan begins next Monday!

Children of the Day Reflections: Living Proof Ministries, Beth Moore’s organization, has given me permission to blog about my journey through Beth Moore’s newest study on 1st and 2nd Thessalonians each Wednesday, so get ready for the first reflection this Wednesday!

My first product review will be up on MIP this coming Friday! I have been asked to review a product for the first time. This is basically “Blogger Nirvana” and a big step forward for MIP, so please take a moment to read the blog Friday.

Top Mommy Blog Update: Because of the Top Mommy Blog status, I have been nominated for a Liebster Award, an award given to new, small blogs! So, thank you for clicking on that Top Mommy Blog button to the right of this post. You can click once a day and every click brings good things (like all of the above)  for the blog and for my writing career, so please keep clicking!

MIP Book Club Lovers: The August MIP Book Club Selection might just change your life…Do you have your copy? If not, go here for details.

Top Mommy Blog Update: Thanks to YOU, MIP is # 193 of the Top Mom Blogs world-wide! And it’s # 9 in the Everything Else sub-category. Click on the “button” to the right of this post to further bring MIP to new people and new audiences. Thanks so much for helping me with this!

Good morning, Word Lovers! Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was bricolage. Merriam-Webster Online says that bricolage means:  construction achieved by using whatever comes to hand. Does this mean that MacGyver did a lot of bricolage? 

Today’s WOW is toxophilite. My definition guesses are:

toxophilite (täk-ˈsä-fə-ˌlīt) 1. having a toxic reaction to the music of the Chi Lites (Half of you just googled Chi Lites, right?) 2. the toxicity that results when Phil lights a cigarette 3. a current resident of Philadelphia (who is actually a native of France) who believes that taxes are too high (Okay…so that one was really reaching…do you have better suggestions?)

What’s your definition guess for toxophilite? Send me an email here.

Wednesday’s Post: Lessons Learned from Buying 3 Homes…

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: bricolage; Word of the Week: spume; Word of the Week: kickshaw; Word of the Week: preterit; and Word of the Week: offal

Book Club Readers: The review will be out for Songs in the Key of Solomon this Friday, along with the August MIP Book Selection (and this one is a must-read, folks!)

Attention Chronic MIP Readers: If you like this blog, would you be so kind as to click on the “top mommy blog” button on the right side of the screen? That allows more readers to find this blog. Thanks so much for reading and for helping this blog find more people!

Good morning, Word Lovers! Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was spume. Merriam-Webster Online says that spume is frothy matter on liquids, as in ocean foam. Living in central Texas we don’t see a whole lot of ocean spume.

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

bricolage (brē-kō-ˈläzh) 1. a brick’s worth of logs 2. a log’s worth of bricks. 3. what happens when a Parisian breaks a leg

What’s your guess for bricolage? Submit it here.

Wednesday’s Post: It won’t be about my Colorado vacation (And the crowd says, “Yesssssss!”)

You Might Also Like: Word of the Week: spume; Word of the Week: kickshaw; Word of the Week: preterit; Word of the Week: offal; and Word of the Week: shinplaster

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

Book Club Lovers: Have you started reading the June MIP Book Club Selection? Beth Moore is so inspiring–I highly encourage you to make it a goal on your summer reading list!

Good morning, WOW lovers! If you watched the national news lately, did you catch the fact that one of the winning words for the National Spelling Bee co-champions was stichomythia??? That should ring a bell, because it’s a former WOW! See–you would win a spelling bee reading the WOW posts every week! Too bad they aren’t willing to give grown-ups $ 30,000 for spelling words correctly, hunh?

Last week’s WOW (Word of the Week) was mien. According to Merriam-Webster Online mien means air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality as well as appearance or aspect. I hope that my mien indicates that I am a Christian! What do you hope your mien indicates about you?

Today’s WOW is eidetic. Eidetic falls under the category of “MaryAnn has heard this word and should know the meaning, but can’t quite yank it out of her rusty brain.” So, let me give my goofier ideas below and maybe the rust will dissipate enough that I come up with the actual definition. (I’m not holding my breath, though.)

eidetic: 1. a way to say, “I get it.” if you lisp 2. a goose feather down quality 3. the way someone struggling with dyslexia spells dietetic

What’s your definition for eidetic? Is your brain less rusty than mine?

Wednesday’s Post: The Odd Days of June

You might also like: Word of the Week: mien; Word of the Week: risible; Word of the Week: pettifogger; Word of the Week: hoise; and Word of the Week: orotund

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

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

Picture picture

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