Category: Word of the Day

Today? It’s an epic meme day. My favorite? The haiku. Why? Well, for one thing, who knew that the word “tired” (or as we like to say around here, “tard”) has two syllables. Certainly not me.

 

 

Enjoy your day, folks.

“Tard” or not, let’s make it a good one.

 

 

The phrase “embarrassment of riches” isn’t really about either “embarrassment” or “riches.” It refers to an over-the-top superabundance one sometimes encounters in the course of going about one’s daily business and unexpectedly finding much more than was originally anticipated. That is exactly what happened to me today. And you are the beneficiary.

 

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It being Saturday, I went over to Midtown for Farmers Market a little earlier than usual. So early in fact that most of the vendors were barely even set up when I arrived. And Pachamama Coffee was still closed. So I decided, what the heck, I’ll walk over to Mansion Flats and see my old friend Matt Fitch’s house.

Matt and Ruth Fitch were long-time members of Trinity Cathedral we knew from when we lived here in the early 1990’s. If you’re wondering what Matt looked like back then, picture the Marlboro Man with silver hair and a big bushy Sam Elliott mustache, about 6’5″, and devilishly handsome. Before sweet red-haired Ruth died during COVID, they bought an old Victorian together in Mansion Flats. In an epic renovation effort, they raised the entire structure an extra four feet above street level so that the downstairs ceilings would have the same headroom as the upstairs ones. To understand why they’d do such a thing, other than Matt’s tall frame, perhaps a word on Sacramento’s history, topography, and architecture is in order before we go on.

 

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Back before the weir and levee system was built early in the 20th century, the Sacramento River regularly flooded downtown when Sierra snow melt and spring rains combined to send it over its banks into low lying areas everywhere – including Mansion Flats. Victorian houses built here in the late 1800’s were usually 2 or 3 story affairs, with a low-ceiling kitchen plus servants’ quarters on the ground floor, and living areas for the more affluent owners up top. We lived in the upstairs of one of these Victorians near 16th and T back in the day. An elderly Chinese couple lived downstairs – with much less headroom, and way cheaper rent.

Matt and Ruth’s place had the standard Victorian layout, but they decided that the first floor should have ceilings just as high as the upper stories. So they  jacked the place up and renovated it over the course of a full year. The cost to do so was considerable, of course.

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The pictures below come in two sections. Section 1 is mostly Mansion Flats, and includes some of the many murals painted on exterior walls around downtown Sacramento. Section 2 is Midtown Farmers Market, including some of the rich bounty – indeed, a veritable embarrassment of riches – to be found there. In both cases, I hope you enjoy it even half as much as I did.

 

 

 

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It’s not often I get stumped by the NYT crossword. But today, right out of the gate at 1-across, there was this clue for a 9-letter word meaning “perfectly acceptable, humorously.” Any guesses? Yeah, me neither.

As it turns out, this is one of those sly neologisms generated out of pop culture that only niche aficionados will get without serious help. Still not ringing a bell? How about a little hint then, a visual one.

 

 

 

As it turns out upon Googling,

we learn that the word “cromulent” came into being this way:

 

According to the DVD commentary for The Simpsons, the show runners asked the writers to come up with nonce words that sounded like words that could be in actual use. Writer David X. Cohen came up with cromulent as one of those words. It means “acceptable” or “fine.”

 

The extended take from Merriam-Webster is here,

and concludes with the following:

 

The joke was so sly and subtle that as “It’s a perfectly cromulent word” was repeated, it wasn’t necessarily clear to the hearer that it was a joke. In the years following the episode’s debut, cromulent appeared in campus op-eds…  and even in the name of a theater company. Cromulent has crept so deep into the language that it has even shown up as a hypothetical example in a Supreme Court amicus brief.

 

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Yeah, believe it or don’t.

Par for course for The Simpsons, I’d say.

Not 100% sure about SCOTUS, however.

Next time you get stumped by the crossword,

be sure to check your amicus briefs.

From the Instagram account depthsofwikipedia, here, comes this series called “auto-antonyms.” These are words that have two meanings usually considered opposites. Note to the uninitiated: You don’t have to be a professional linguist to love ’em.

For example…

Oversight can mean either “accidental omission / error,” or “close scrutiny / control.”

Sanction can mean either “approve,” or “penalize.”

Peruse can mean either “consider with attention in great detail,” or “look over in a cursory or casual manner.”

Table can mean either ‘discuss a topic at a meeting” (British usage), or “postpone discussion of a topic” (American usage).

Fast can mean either “without moving, fixed in place,” or “moving quickly.”

Dust can mean either “removing dust” (as in “clean the house”), or “adding dust” (as in “sprinkle a cake with powdered sugar”).

Clip can mean either “attach,” or “cut off.”

Cleave can mean either “cling to,” or “split apart.”

Custom can mean either “made to an individual’s exact specification,” or “a commonplace practice across an entire culture.”

Patronize can mean either “support” (economically), or “belittle” (emotionally).

 

Got any others you particularly love – or hate?

 

C’mon all you inveterate bibliophiles: Show us your stuff!

 

And as if that’s not enough, there’s this further canary-in-a-coal-mine wisdom from one of my favorite wise-guys, John Cleese. (Hmmm, “wise-guys,” another auto-antonym, perhaps?) Plus a bonus climate change commentary from two frogs in a pot: One is sanguine. The other is not.

 

 

 

Which of course brings to mind another in this series of auto-antonyms just to close things out:  Sanguine can mean either “bloody” or “optimistic, especially in a bad situation” – you make the call. But please, hop to it before the water boils: Word to the wise, guys.

Today’s Word of the Day is “potpourri.” It means a mixture – whether of petals, or spices, or images, or music. It may or may not add up to a pleasing medley. Does it? You make the call. And for all you insatiably curious linguists out there, the origin story for this word is here.  But for those of you loathe to click, in a nutshell: ‘Potpourri’ was borrowed directly from the French ‘pot pourri.’ In that language the literal meaning of these words is “putrid pot.”

 

In philosophy, a ‘razor‘ is that which shaves off the unnecessary. Thus the familiar “Occam’s razor,” named for the 14th-century English philosopher and theologian William of Occam, in its most popular formulation implies that “the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.” Today on Instagram (courtesy of cheerful_nihilism) I came across a new variant on this age-old theme in the form of “Hanlon’s razor.” It posits the following: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Amen, brother Hanlon. And again I say, “Amen.” Though of course, as William of Occam might say: “That’s one too many Amens.”

 

 

 

Today’s Word of the Day is “meece.”

As in…

 

OK, today’s post is aimed at a super niche audience: Solvers of the NY Times Crossword who, like me, got down to this as the last remaining clue today and were stumped. Me personally, I have never in my life heard the word “van” used in this way. OK, now that we’re down to the remaining two or three of you, let’s proceed, shall we? From Caitlin Lovinger’s Wordplay column, here…

 

42A. “Leading position” solves to VAN in this puzzle, and I couldn’t pull up “vanguard” in my mind for the life of me. I had to look up this definition and, sure enough, it’s perfectly acceptable. The first time VAN appeared in a Times Crossword, in 1943, its clue was “Leading unit in battle” — although clues like “Covered wagon” and “Truck” soon followed. As clued in this puzzle, VAN as an attenuated “vanguard” is rooted in the French “avant-garde.” When VAN is short for “caravan,” it draws from the Persian “karwan,” a group of travelers, or possibly the Sanskrit word for camel, “karabhah.”

 

“Avant-garde,” perhaps.  And “caravan?” OK, maybe I can grant you that one. But “vanguard?” Nope, not so much. Waddayasay, solvers? Am I being too harsh? Or is this one a bit of a super-niche stretch? You make the call – all three of you.

 

 

C’mon, Kate. Weigh in here. What would etymonline say? Oh, no, wait. I guess it already did. (See link to “short for caravan” above.)

Shout out to my better half returning to the teaching grind today after a much-needed 3-day President’s Day weekend. What makes her such a great educator? She’s always searching for the real world application no matter what subject is being taught. For instance…

 

Last but not least, I found a site called “Wolf Blood.”

It’s my new favorite.

 

 

More real world wolf wisdom is here.