August 2011
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know your car____ movement verbs
to careen is fall to one side
to career is to rush at full speed
to carom is to glance and rebound
this is also a secret words wholly unrelated post because none of the car____ verbs are related etymologically and each comes from different sports.
careening, a nautical term, is from the latin carina meaning the keel of a ship (or “nutshell”).
careering, a horse racing term, comes...
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today in intriguing german loanwords:
schlimmbesserung • a so-called improvement that makes things worse
off the top of my head: scrolling on osx lion, how my dad now puts a bar of bitter chocolate into his famous bunkhouse chili, 3d movies, my new van dyke beard, the effects of botox, the new budweiser identity, et cetry, et cetry.
what falls on your schlimmbesserung list?
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words wholly unrelated
faker & fakir
i’ve been in indi(an)a for the last week on “business”. every morning, on my way from my five star hotel to the convention center where i conduct my shadowy dealings, i wade through a throng of peddlers, beggars, and hustlers. this morning, as i gazed upon these busy souls, i got to wondering about the relationship between fakir and faker. properly speaking,...
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