[en-lahyt-n-muhnt]
Posted by hopeseguin on August 28, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/word-of-the-day-13/
Criticism was always the shortest kid in the class. He learned early to use words to defend himself. As a teenager, Criticism loved to take things apart. At that time he didn’t care if they ever got put back together. He retains a strong curiosity about how things work and a deep respect for tools. Criticism is a strict father. He adores his children, but he fears their spontaneity.
Sometimes I want to write Criticism a letter and tell him to leave me alone. The problem is that when I don’t see him for a while, I start to miss him. Still, my conversations with him often make me nervous. I usually believe the bad things he says and forget about the good stuff. When we really disagree, I am upset for days and run around asking everyone I meet to reassure me. If I could trust him more, it would be different, but he changes his mind as much as I do. For all his sensitivity, it was years before he realized that other people also have feelings.
- J. Ruth Gendler, The Book of Qualities
Posted by hopeseguin on August 25, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/criticism/
mention [ˈmɛnʃən]
Posted by hopeseguin on August 25, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/word-of-the-day-12/
Pronunciation:/biˈdīzənd/
Definition: dressed up or decorated gaudily
Posted by hopeseguin on July 27, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/word-of-the-day-11/
Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of 13, a number commonly associated with bad luck in Western culture. While fear of the number 13 can be traced back to medieval times, the word triskaidekaphobia itself is of recent vintage, having been first coined by Coriat (1911; Simpson and Weiner 1992). It seems to have first appeared in the general media in a Nov. 8, 1953 New York Times article covering discussions of a United Nations committee.
Triskaidekaphobia also may be related to Norse mythology, which tells how the god Odin invited eleven of his closest friends to a dinner party at his home in Valhalla, only to have his party crashed by Loki, the god of evil and turmoil, thus giving a total of 13 people. The legend further relates how Balder, one of the most beloved gods, tried to throw Loki out of the party, resulting in a scuffle and ultimately Balder’s death with a mistletoe-tipped arrow.
Fear of the number 13 also leads to fear of Friday the thirteenth (a fear recently dubbed paraskevidekatriaphobia), despite the fact that Friday turns out to be the most common weekday on which the 13th of a month can occur in the Gregorian calendar. The association of bad luck with Friday appeared in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the late 14th century (“and on a Friday fell all this misfortune”), but references to Friday as a day associated with ill luck in general first appear around the middle of the 17th century (Mikkelson and Mikkelson). In particular, it appeared in numerous publications as a particularly unlucky day to start a new venture (beginning a journey, giving birth, getting married, moving, starting a new job, etc.) beginning around 1800 (Mikkelson and Mikkelson).
source: MathWorld
Norse god Odin – the father of all Norse gods
Posted by hopeseguin on July 13, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/triskaidekaphobia/
The bad news about today’s word is that you will get nowhere by associating it with fact. The good news is that, though unrelated, its meaning is quite similar to fractious, another adjective that differs by a single letter. Factious means “tending to dissent.” If enough folks do this, you end up with factions, which is the closest kin of factious.
Posted by hopeseguin on July 10, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/bad-news-and-good-news/
1. Adherence to or persistence in an erroneous use of language, memorization, practice, belief, etc., out of habit or obstinacy.
2. A person who persists in a mistaken expression or practice.
Posted by hopeseguin on July 1, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/word-of-the-day-10/
Pronunciation:/präkˈsēmiks/
Definition: the branch of knowledge that deals with the amount of space that people feel it necessary to set between themselves and others
boundaries
Communications scholars began studying personal space and people’s perception of it decades ago, in a field known as proxemics. But with the population in the United States climbing above 300 million, urban corridors becoming denser and people with wealth searching for new ways to separate themselves from the masses, interest in the issue of personal space — that invisible force field around your body — is intensifying.
. . . According to scientists, personal space involves not only the invisible bubble around the body, but all the senses. People may feel their space is being violated when they experience an unwelcome sound, scent or stare: the woman on the bus squawking into her cellphone, the co-worker in the adjacent cubicle dabbing on cologne, or the man in the sandwich shop leering at you over his panini.
. . . Edward T. Hall, an anthropologist and the father of proxemics, even put numbers to the unspoken rules. He defined the invisible zones around us and attributed a range of distance to each one: intimate distance (6 to 18 inches); personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet); social distance (4 to 12 feet); and public distance (about 12 feet or more).
. . . In general most people understand the rules of personal space and heed the cues. Then again, the world is littered with clods. As Dr. Archer put it, people generally view personal-space rules in one of two ways: “the wrong way and my way.”
Source: Personal Space
Posted by hopeseguin on June 17, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/space-personal/
| blahed | past and past participle | |
| bla·hing | present participle | |
| blahs | 3rd person present singular |
Posted by hopeseguin on May 3, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/blah/
Now, nature, as I am only too aware, has her enthusiasts, but on the whole, I am not to be counted among them. To put it bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel.
- Fran Lebowitz
Posted by hopeseguin on April 30, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/comfortable-i-agree-with-fran/
PRONUNCIATION:
Posted by hopeseguin on April 30, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/mentor/
Pronunciation: /swänˈyā/ Definition: dressed very elegantly; well groomed
Posted by hopeseguin on April 15, 2012
http://aimlesswithpurpose.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/word-of-the-day-9/
