Rebuilding journal search again

Jun. 30th, 2025 03:18 pm
alierak: (Default)
[personal profile] alierak posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance
We're having to rebuild the search server again (previously, previously). It will take a few days to reindex all the content.

Meanwhile search services should be running, but probably returning no results or incomplete results for most queries.

Monday Word: tantalus

Jun. 30th, 2025 02:00 pm
stonepicnicking_okapi: letters (letters)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi posting in [community profile] 1word1day
tantalus [tan-tl-uhs]

noun

1. a stand or rack containing visible decanters, especially of wines or liquors, secured by a lock; a case in which bottles may be locked with their contents tantalizingly visible

examples

1. A tantalus containing three kinds of spirit, all of a liqueur excellence, stood always on this table of luxury; but the fanciful have asserted that the whisky, brandy, and rum seemed always to stand at the same level. The Wisdom of Father Brown G.K. Chesterton

2. Carstairs made a gesture towards the tantalus on the table. Afterwards Kathlyn Rhodes

origin

Latin, from Greek Tantalos, from the Greek myth of Tantalus, a wicked king and son of Zeus; condemned in Hades to stand in water that receded when he tried to drink and beneath fruit that receded when he reached for it
tantalus

Sunday Word: Bagatelle

Jun. 29th, 2025 07:51 pm
sallymn: (words 6)
[personal profile] sallymn posting in [community profile] 1word1day

bagatelle [bag-uh-tel]

noun:
1 something of little value or importance; a trifle
2 a game played on a board having holes at one end into which balls are to be struck with a cue
3 a short literary or musical piece in light style

Examples:

If anything, the slowly accumulating final chord of the bagatelle could have set up the softly arpeggiated one at the start of 'Twilight Way', the first of the 'Poetic Tone Pictures.' (Joshua Barone, Review: Dvorak’s 'Poetic Tone Pictures’ Makes Its Carnegie Debut, New York Times, February 2023)

Pinball got its start in 18th-century France with the billiardslike tabletop game bagatelle, which used a springlike launcher. (World-ranked pinball wizard is reviving the game in San Antonio with a new startup, san Antonio Express-News, March 2020)

When you are caught in a web of conspiracies, the best of deeds becomes a mere bagatelle, as we find in the fall of Udensi. (Henry Akubuiro, Travails of a Good Samaritan , The Sun Nigeria, March 2021)

Among the most divisive issues in philosophy today is whether there is anything important to be said about the essential nature of truth. Bullshit, by contrast, might seem to be a mere bagatelle. (Jim Holt, Say Anything, The New Yorker, August 2005)

'Overdue; was the title he had decided for it, and its length he believed would not be more than sixty thousand words - a bagatelle for him with his splendid vigor of production. (Jack London, Martin Eden)

The betrayal of one's friends is a bagatelle in the stakes of love, but the betrayal of oneself is a lifelong regret. (Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love)

Then there were the bird cages, the iron hoops, the steel skates, the Queen Anne coal-scuttle, the bagatelle board, the hand organ - all gone, and jewels, too. (Virginia Woolf, 'The Mark on the Wall')

Origin:

1630s, 'a trifle, thing of no importance,' from French bagatelle 'knick-knack, bauble, trinket' (16c.), from Italian bagatella 'a trifle,' which is perhaps a diminutive of Latin baca 'berry,' or from one of the continental words (such as Old French bague 'bundle') from the same source as English bag. As 'a piece of light music,' it is attested from 1827. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Tuesday word: Hornswoggle

Jun. 24th, 2025 11:23 am
simplyn2deep: (Scott Caan::writing)
[personal profile] simplyn2deep posting in [community profile] 1word1day
Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Hornswoggle (verb)
hornswoggle [hawrn-swog-uhl]


verb (used with object), Slang., hornswoggled, hornswoggling
1. to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com

When To Use
Where does hornswoggle come from?

Hornswoggle, as noted in our definition above, means "to swindle, cheat, or hoax." But, it would be cheating for us to say we know where hornswoggle comes from exactly. Its earliest known appearance so far is in the U.S. around 1815–25. Is hornswoggle supposed to sound like some hullabaloo from some sort of trumpet? Did a hog get all washed up? Well, sometimes nonsense words are just that—nonsense. Ultimately, hornswoggle is probably just a fanciful, funny formation.

Origin: 1815–25 origin uncertain

Example Sentences
He continues: “Down the road, it’ll be just one more instance when voters thought they were doing the right thing and they were hornswoggled. It fuels cynicism and bitterness and mistrust in government.”
From Los Angeles Times

His ability to hornswoggle tens of millions of voters is no laughing matter.
From Washington Post

Or, had President Trump hornswoggled multiple Congressional leaders, hundreds of Congressional Republicans and key players in his administration into believing he would sign this particular package?
From Fox News

Here are some things you can do afterward to see if you’ve been hornswoggled: Check the font of the logo.
From Golf Digest

The only sensible conclusion from all of this is that the superrich will settle, plead or hornswoggle their way out of any attempt to cancel their status.
From Washington Post

Monday Word: Sybarite

Jun. 23rd, 2025 09:20 am
stonepicnicking_okapi: letters (letters)
[personal profile] stonepicnicking_okapi posting in [community profile] 1word1day
sybarite [sib-uh-rahyt]

noun

1. a person devoted to luxury and pleasure.

examples

1. Higher volumes of sybarites are also tasking luxury operators with making crowd-free vacation dreams come true. Lindsay Cohn, Robb Report, 20 May 2025
2. What unites these contemporary sybarites with their stylish forebears is a powerful longing for freedom. Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, 16 May 2025
3. His lifestyle is scandalous in a Spain that's suffering so much right now; he's a sybarite and a lover of antiques--his probably be able to get hold of the most valued pieces, paid for by other people's hunger. The Seamstress María Dueñas

origin
mid 16th century, originally denoting an inhabitant of Sybaris, an ancient Greek city in southern Italy, noted for luxury

A Pythagorean School Invaded by Sybarites, Michele Tedesco, 1877
sybarite

Sunday Word: Clishmaclaver

Jun. 22nd, 2025 02:17 pm
sallymn: (words 6)
[personal profile] sallymn posting in [community profile] 1word1day

clishmaclaver [klish-muh-kley-ver, kleesh-]

noun:
(Scots) gossip; idle or foolish talk

Examples:

There is more of good sense, sound judgment, truth, and good taste, in it, than in all the clishmaclaver which has been issued from the Popish presses and Jesuit quarterly reviews in the United States, during the last half century. (William Hogan, Auricular Confession and Popish Nunneries)

Noo, I’ve been a gude friend to ye always, Peter, and eef there’s iver been anything wrang, I’ve been like Sir Murray himsel’ to all ye sairvants, and paid yer wage, and seen ye raised, and that no ane put upon ye; so now tell me, like a gude laddie, has there been any clishmaclaver with Maister Norton and my laird here? (George Manville Fenn, The Sapphire Cross)

Let me insense ye how matters are on that head, for it's better coming from the factor than any clishmaclaver you'll hear in other quarters. (Sam Hanna Bell, Across the Narrow Sea)

Your letter is at hand, stating that you cannot visit me on Friday per promise, because you husband has business that keeps him in town. What clishmaclaver is this! Has it come to such a pass that you can’t leave him for two days? (Jean Webster, Dear Enemy)

Origin:

1720–30; clish(-clash) gossip (gradational compound based on clash ) + -ma- (< ?) + claver (Dictionary.com)

The usual meaning of the Scottish word clishmaclaver (also clish-ma-claver, clishmaclaiver, clashmaclaver) is 'idle talk, gossip, or empty chatter'. The OED says it was formed 'apparently with allusion to clish-clash and claver, with echoic associations', and finds it also used as a verb ('keep me clishmaclavering'). Hiberno-English has the related short form clash 'gossip' as both noun and verb. Terence Dolan notes clash in Sligo ('He’s an awful old clash'), while a century ago P W Joyce reported clashbag 'tale-bearer' or 'busybody' in Armagh, Northern Ireland. (Sentence first)

Wednesday Word: Apophenia

Jun. 18th, 2025 07:38 am
calzephyr: MLP Words (MLP Words)
[personal profile] calzephyr posting in [community profile] 1word1day
Apophenia - noun

Similar to pareidolia, apophenia is the tendancy for people to see connections or meaningful patterns between random and/or unrelated things, whether they are objects, visuals or ideas.

I scheduled posts for the LJ community as I'm a little busy this month--DW doesn't have scheduling, so my posts here may be out of sync for a bit!

Profile

foliedemars: (Default)
Venteux Mars

October 2022

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 3rd, 2025 08:39 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios