Word of the day

[Foureyes]

I think that this is one of those words with several, quite different meanings. Your husband may be right in using it to refer to bones, etc, but another meaning entirely is to be cheated - and rather badly, too. Thus, anyone who believed Tony Blair when he said that he was a socialist would, quite definitely, have been hornswoggled.
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[cj]

Thank you for enlightening me, Foureyes. I thought hubby was just talking sh1te.

[Foureyes]

Cath,
Always ready to help a fellow Devonian!

[Ajarn Philip]

Spot on, Foureyes!

horn·swog·gle (hôrnswgl)
tr.v. horn·swog·gled, horn·swog·gling, horn·swog·gles Chiefly Northern & Western U.S.
To bamboozle; deceive.

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[Origin unknown.]
Our Living Language We do not know the origin of hornswoggle. We do know that it belongs to a group of "fancified" words that were particularly popular in the American West in the 19th century. Hornswoggle is one of the earliest, first appearing around 1829. It is possible that these words were invented to poke fun at the more "sophisticated" East. Some other words of this ilk are absquatulate, also first appearing in the 1820s, skedaddle, first attested in 1861 in Missouri, and discombobulate, first recorded in 1916.


Sounds like gobbledygook to me...

[Angela Woodford]

I've frequently claimed to be discombobulated - and the thing is, I don't know exactly what the word means. The sound and appearance of the word just seems to sum up my state of mind some of the time, as in -

DR West: "Angela appears sometimes to be living in a world of her own, heedless of external events and the wishes of other people". (School Report 1966).

So was I being discombobulated, when that frank and brusque blue fountain pen summed up my mental state as I appeared absorbed in book, music, smuggled-in Vogue Magazine or dreamy thoughts?

I think it's a lovely word. Do I use it correctly, Philip?

Munch

[englishangel]

I have used hornswoggle in the meaning of 'cheat or deceive' and I suppose the modern version of hornswoggling is those spam emails that tell you you have won a fantastic amount on some lottery you haven't entered and you will receive wads of cash if you send an administration fee of £500.00 to sue, Grabbit and run at PO Box 123, Cheating Street Madrid.

[Ajarn Philip]

I've frequently claimed to be discombobulated - and the thing is, I don't know exactly what the word means. The sound and appearance of the word just seems to sum up my state of mind some of the time, as in -

DR West: "Angela appears sometimes to be living in a world of her own, heedless of external events and the wishes of other people". (School Report 1966).

So was I being discombobulated, when that frank and brusque blue fountain pen summed up my mental state as I appeared absorbed in book, music, smuggled-in Vogue Magazine or dreamy thoughts?

I think it's a lovely word. Do I use it correctly, Philip?


Munch

Your wish is my command, O Mistress...


dis·com·bob·u·late (dskm-bby-lt)
tr.v. dis·com·bob·u·lat·ed, dis·com·bob·u·lat·ing, dis·com·bob·u·lates
To throw into a state of confusion.

Your first question, O Great One, is slightly ambiguous (if you'll forgive the forwardness of this mere speck of dust on Your Sublime Foot for suggesting the possibility.)

You may have been discombobulated by the report, unless expecting it, but the report was probably not a reference to your state of discombobulation (or perhaps discombobulatedness?). In other words, O Eighth Wonder of the World, it was more likely to be a reference to your being a dozy pillock who spent too much time gazing out of the window.

My bill is in the post.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Here's hoping that I haven't been discombobulated by the forum search engine, and that I am not repeating someone else's word of the day, when I give you

baggywrinkle

bits of stuff (usually frayed rope) wrapped around shrouds to stop sails chafing.

I believe that the last time I used this word in its correct context (ie, not to describe my derriere) was aboard a racing yacht, while gale bound in Alderney Harbour.

We were playing I Spy, and our Skipper (ex 2IC Special Branch and PhD in some maritime subject or other) accused me of hornswaggling (?) the crew. I still maintain that the plastic tubing around the shrouds were baggywrinkles, and that he was a Bad Sport.

xx

[Angela Woodford]

discombobulatedness... it was more likely to be a reference to your being a dozy pillock who spent too much time gazing out of the window

Oh - an analyst with the "treat 'em and street 'em" robust style of bedside manner -

I'm afraid you have hit upon the brutal truth, oh Ajarn.

I suppose I should now get baggywrinkled before hitting the citalopram, possibly mixed with a little Bombay Sapphire.

I'll get over it!

[Richard Ruck]

Sorry, been a bit idle of late......


pirogue

• noun - a long, narrow canoe made from a single tree trunk, especially in Central America and the Caribbean.

— origin early 17th cent. : from French, probably from Carib.

[cj]

This is one I remember from the Hertford house singing competition. 1s did a rendition of The Carpenters 'Jambalaya' in which we girls sang with beauty, clarity and finesse "he gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou". Never did understand what it meant! Incidentally I think we one the competition that year. Might Tara Stringer have been conducting? And I think Catherine Bates was involved somehow as she was very musical.

[Ajarn Philip]

And I think Catherine Bates was involved somehow as she was very musical.

She was interested in literature as well - very scary in Misery...

[cj]

Pedant alert!! The miserable one is Kathy (Kathleen), so there, ner.

[Ajarn Philip]

Pedant alert Mark II

I was about to say, 'Yeah, but I bet she was christened Catherine.' Then I googled it. Her name is Kathleen. Damnation, I hate being wrong...

cj, I'm really, REALLY sorry about all the middle aged stuff. Can I be right from now on. Please?

P.S. I'm not quite sure what this emoticonthingy means, but it's lovely, isn't it?

[cj]

OK then, next time you can be right, but let's take it in turns.

I've never thought of the Grim Reaper as 'lovely', although it always puts me in mind of that wonderful French & Saunders sketch of an Ingmar Bergman film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJi_emmNYTY

PS Do you ever do any work?