popplers

Word of the Day

billingsgate\BIL-ingz-gayt; -git\, noun:
Coarsely abusive, foul, or profane language.

And as someone whose e-mail address appears beneath his column, I'm regularly amazed at the billingsgate people fling when they let their fingers do the talking.
--Scot Lehigh, "Let's talk about incivility - please", Boston Globe, April 13, 2006

Soda, not pop

Word of the Day

pericope

PRONUNCIATION: p-rk-p
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. pe·ric·o·pes or pe·ric·o·pae
An extract or selection from a book, especially a reading from a Scripture that forms part of a church service.
ETYMOLOGY: Late Latin pericop, from Greek perikop, a cutting around, section, from perikoptein, to cut around : peri-, peri- + koptein, to cut.
OTHER FORMS: pe·rico·pal (p-rk-pl) , peri·copic (pr-kpk) —ADJECTIVE

Word of the Day

Via Neil Gaiman, two fantastic new (to me) words: zeugma and syllepsis. Jed Hartman offers some fun examples:

• He fished for compliments and trout.
  
• He stole the show and my wallet.
  
• I grew alfalfa and bored.
  
• He bit the bullet, her hand, and the dust.
  
• She bought the 1994 election, an antique cereal bowl, and the farm.
  
• He drowned his sorrows and his cat.
  
• He screwed up the assignment and over his partner.
  
• She came up through the ranks, over last night, repeatedly, and to realize the error of her ways.

Readers of his column also contributed some zeugmata of their own:

• They abandoned all pretense and their cat.
  
• The men advanced under the command of Sergeant Snorkel, the cover of darkness, and the enemy's noses.
  
• He aimed to please and at the target.
  
• He answered the phone, the question, and to "Bill".