Exploring Communications

[Update]: I just saw this one from a fellow member of a group (@Hank Shrier) in LinkedIn called Writing Mafia… had to add it:

sesquipedalianism (plural sesquipedalianisms)

1. (uncountable) The practice of using long, sometimes obscure, words in speech or writing. ?[quotations ?]
   • 1995, Michael Cart, From Romance to Realism, ISBN 0060242892, page 257:

     His voice here is a marvelous juxtaposition of cool elegance, unaffected hipness, unabashed sesquipedalianism (“the rich bouquet of exuded sebaceousness”) and swell conversational slang (…)

2. (countable) A very long word.

Definition source: http://en.wiktionary.org

[Original]:

I often come across interesting words penned by my fellow Twitterers and keep thinking that I’d like to use those words sometime… so rather than lose them to the cluttered filling cabinet in my mind; here they are and may they benefit your vocabulary also: (I will update as I find more and please feel free to add more!)

(explanations from my iMac’s dictionary)

scuppering [@susan_m]
verb [ trans. ] chiefly Brit.
sink (a ship or its crew) deliberately.
• informal prevent from working or succeeding; thwart : plans for a casino were scuppered by a public inquiry.
ORIGIN late 19th cent. (as military slang in the sense [kill, esp. in an ambush] ): of unknown origin. The sense [sink] dates from the 1970s.

Placebo [@neerav via @fridley]: noun ( pl. -bos)
a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect : his Aunt Beatrice had been kept alive on sympathy and placebos for thirty years | [as adj. ] placebo drugs.
• a substance that has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs.
• figurative a measure designed merely to calm or please someone.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from Latin, literally ‘I shall please,’ from placere ‘to please.’ Interestingly I also found out the word “placebo” originates from 14th century tradition of hiring fake mourners to wail and cry at funerals…

Lambasting (@matthewgain): lambaste |lam?be?st| (also lambast |-?bast|)
verb [ trans. ]
criticize (someone or something) harshly : they lambasted the report as a gross distortion of the truth.
ORIGIN mid 17th cent. (in the sense [beat, thrash] ): from lam 1 + baste 3 . The current sense dates from the late 19th cent.

Avatar (@vipvirtualsols etc): ??I couldn’t resist this one as the movie was awesome and I love the feeling this one makes in your mouth when you say it… noun chiefly Hinduism
a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth; an incarnate divine teacher.
• an incarnation, embodiment, or manifestation of a person or idea : he set himself up as a new avatar of Arab radicalism.
• Computing a movable icon representing a person in cyberspace or virtual reality graphics.
ORIGIN from Sanskrit avat?ra ‘descent,’ from ava ‘down’ + tar- ‘to cross.’

Churlish (@matthewgain): adjective
rude in a mean-spirited and surly way : it seems churlish to complain.
DERIVATIVES
churlishly adverb
churlishness noun
ORIGIN Old English cierlisc, ceorlisc (see churl , -ish 1 ).

Delimiter (@trib): verb ( -limited , -limiting ) [ trans. ]
determine the limits or boundaries of : agreements delimiting fishing zones.
DERIVATIVES
delimitation |-?te??(?)n| noun
delimiter noun
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from French délimiter, from Latin delimitare, from de- ‘down, completely’ + limitare (from limes, limit- ‘boundary, limit’ ). ALSO the name of online news service, Delimiter, launched in Australia to compete with AAP, covering IT&T and consumer tech news.

Tags: dictionary, meaning, words

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