Thursday, July 12, 2007

Thursday Thirteen

Merriam Webster added new words to their dictionary - They won't tell us all 100 (I guess they want you to buy a new dictionary every year - is the suspense killing you? Do you feel like you need to go out and buy a new dictionary and read through it until you find the 100 new words for the year?)

This Thursday Thirteen is brought to you courtesy of the wordy folks at Merriam-Webster

1) ginormous - Etymology: gigantic + enormous
2) DVR: digital video recorder
3) microgreen: a shoot of a standard salad plant (as celery or arugula)
4) viewshed: the natural environment that is visible from one or more viewing points
5) hardscape: structures (as fountains, benches, or gazebos) that are incorporated into a landscape
6) agnolotti: pasta in the form of semicircular cases containing a filling (as of meat, cheese, or vegetables)
7) flex-cuff: a plastic strip that can be fastened as a restraint around a person's wrists or ankles
8) nocebo: a harmless substance that when taken by a patient is associated with harmful effects due to negative expectations or the psychological condition of the patient
9) perfect storm: a critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors
10) speed dating: an event at which each participant converses individually with all the prospective partners for a few minutes in order to select those with whom dates are desired
11) sudoku: a popular word game (at this point in the list the fine folks at merriam webster stopped letting me see the definitions of their new words)
12) telenovela: latin soap opera (again, me giving my own definition)
13) smackdown: 1 : the act of knocking down or bringing down an opponent 2 : a contest in entertainment wrestling 3 : a decisive defeat 4 : a confrontation between rivals or competitors

2 comments:

Rebecca said...

I use ginormous all the time and am THRILLED to have it recognized!! WooHoo!!!

Happy TT

Special K ~Toni said...

Yep- great minds think alike! Great post!