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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsI like the word cahoots but I rarely get to use it...
you got any words like that?
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...for some reason, I love that term...
Phentex
(16,334 posts)Who did I just see? None other than Martha Stewart herself!
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...something like, "as it turned out, the biggest adulterer in Washington was none other than Newt Gingrich himself, head of the Forces for Morality in Clinton's Washington"...
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Phentex
(16,334 posts)I struggle with certain combos and that's one.
mnhtnbb
(31,384 posts)I love the concept. Love the word.
Phentex
(16,334 posts)Tom Kitten
(7,346 posts)Also caboodle. As in "They were in cahoots and put the kibosh on the whole kit and caboodle."
Phentex
(16,334 posts)in the south we say oodles and boo-coodles
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)which, in hindsight, was somewhat shortsighted.
redwitch
(14,944 posts)csziggy
(34,136 posts)Phentex
(16,334 posts)rurallib
(62,406 posts)Phentex
(16,334 posts)whoosy whatzit?
Iggo
(47,549 posts)As in, "What's all this folderol?" (It helps if you're standing with your arms akimbo.)
You're welcome!
Phentex
(16,334 posts)will practice the stance too
Generic Brad
(14,274 posts)I love to use "Hobo" in a sentence. I work it in whenever I can.
Phentex
(16,334 posts)a regular conversation unless you're talking about a purse
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)good way to use it!
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Phentex
(16,334 posts)maybe I got a subliminal message recently
Orrex
(63,203 posts)Phentex
(16,334 posts)femmocrat
(28,394 posts)I think strew and strewn are very handy words! I used them a lot when I was teaching!
scatter or spread (things) untidily over a surface or area.
"a small room with newspapers strewn all over the floor"
synonyms: scatter, spread, disperse, litter, toss; literarybestrew
"rose petals were strewn along the aisle"
cover (a surface or area) with untidily scattered things.
"the table was strewn with books and papers"
be scattered or spread untidily over (a surface or area).
"leaves strewed the path"
Phentex
(16,334 posts)that's another one I should use more often
Wounded Bear
(58,647 posts)Mendocino
(7,486 posts)lupine
kattywampus
elfin
lush
Phentex
(16,334 posts)apparently guaranteed for life even if chewed. Why isn't chewn a word?
3catwoman3
(23,973 posts)Limpid
Pellucid
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)We don't use that word enough in life but we should even if it is an old-fart word
be·hoove
biˈho͞ov/
verbformal
3rd person present: behooves
it is a duty or responsibility for someone to do something; it is incumbent on.
"it behooves any coach to study his predecessors"
synonyms: be incumbent on, be obligatory for, be required of, be expected of, be appropriate for More
"it behooves me to go"
befit, become, suit
"it ill behooves them to comment"
it is appropriate or suitable; it befits.
"it ill behooves the opposition constantly to decry the sale of arms to friendly countries"
Phentex
(16,334 posts)she'd also point out when we were being "uncouth and unmannerly" (used together always)
clarice
(5,504 posts)Phentex
(16,334 posts)what's the response when you use it?
clarice
(5,504 posts)PufPuf23
(8,767 posts)Ubiquitous I use ubiquitously.
Phentex
(16,334 posts)Now I can't remember the reference but I said it to my son
Nice copy cat with cahooting!
kentauros
(29,414 posts)Also "Belgium!" for the geeks out there
1829, American English, of unknown origin; said to be perhaps from French cahute "cabin, hut" (12c.), but U.S. sources credit it to French cohorte (see cohort), a word said to have been in use in the U.S. South and West with a sense of "companions, confederates."
1590s, via Middle French cavalcade (15c.), from Italian cavalcata, from cavalcare "to ride on horseback," from Vulgar Latin *caballicare (also source of Spanish cabalgada, Portuguese cavalgata), from Latin caballus (see cavalier). Literally, "a procession on horseback;" in 20c. -cade came to be regarded as a suffix and taken to form motorcade (1913), etc.
1914; see serendipity + -ous. Related: Serendipitously.
serendipity
1754 (but rare before 20c.), coined by Horace Walpole (1717-92) in a letter to Horace Mann (dated Jan. 28); he said he formed it from the Persian fairy tale "The Three Princes of Serendip," whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of." The name is from Serendip, an old name for Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), from Arabic Sarandib, from Sanskrit Simhaladvipa "Dwelling-Place-of-Lions Island."
1836, kye-bosk, in British English slang phrase put the kibosh on, of unknown origin, despite intense speculation. The earliest citation is in Dickens. Looks Yiddish, but its original appearance in a piece set in the heavily Irish "Seven Dials" neighborhood in the West End of London seems to argue against this.
One candidate is Irish caip bháis, caipín báis "cap of death," sometimes said to be the black cap a judge would don when pronouncing a death sentence, but in other sources this is identified as a gruesome method of execution "employed by Brit. forces against 1798 insurgents" {Bernard Share, "Slanguage, A Dictionary of Irish Slang"}. Or the word might somehow be connected with Turkish bosh (see bosh).
c. 1848, see kit.
kit and caboodle (n.)
also kaboodle, 1870, earlier kit and boodle (1855), kit and cargo (1848), according to OED from kit (n.1) in dismissive sense "number of things viewed as a whole" (1785) + boodle "lot, collection," perhaps from Dutch boedel "property." Century Dictionary compares the whole kit, of persons, "every one" (1785).
1798, "common hemp," from Cannabis, Modern Latin plant genus named (1728), from Greek kannabis "hemp," a Scythian or Thracian word. Also source of Armenian kanap', Albanian kanep, Russian konoplja, Persian kanab, Lithuanian kanapes "hemp," and English canvas and possibly hemp. In reference to use of the plant parts as an intoxicant, from 1848. Related: Cannabic.
also hoop-la, 1877, hoop la, American English, earlier houp-la, exclamation accompanying quick movement (1870), of unknown origin, perhaps borrowed from French houp-là "upsy-daisy," also a cry to dogs, horses, etc. (see whoop).
1590s, of unknown origin; originally a jumbled mix of liquors (milk and beer, beer and wine, etc.), transferred 1670s to "senseless jumble of words." From dash; first element perhaps cognate with Danish balder "noise, clatter" (see boulder).
c. 1400, in kenebowe, of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle English phrase in keen bow "at a sharp angle," or from a Scandinavian word akin to Icelandic kengboginn "bow-bent," but this seems not to have been used in this exact sense. Many languages use a teapot metaphor for this, such as French faire le pot a deux anses "to play the pot with two handles."
"a tramp," 1889, Western U.S., of unknown origin. Barnhart compares early 19c. English dialectal hawbuck "lout, clumsy fellow, country bumpkin." Or possibly from ho, boy, a workers' call on late 19c. western U.S. railroads. Facetious formation hobohemia, "community or life of hobos," is from 1923 (see bohemian).
Old English strewian, streowian "to scatter," from Proto-Germanic *strawjan- (source also of Old Frisian strewa, Old Saxon strowian, Old Norse stra, Danish strø, Swedish strö, Middle Dutch strowen, Dutch strooien, Old High German strouwen, German streuen, Gothic straujan "to sprinkle, strew" , from PIE root *stere- "to spread, extend, stretch out" (see structure (n.)). Related: Strewed; strewn; strewing.
1540s, a medical word for "excess of body fluid," from Late Latin plethora, from Greek plethore "fullness," from plethein "be full" (see pleio-). Figurative meaning "too-muchness, overfullness in any respect" is first recorded 1700. Related: Plethoric.
"wolf-like," 1650s, from French lupine "wolf-like," from Latin lupinus "of the wolf," from lupus "wolf" (see wolf (n.)).
also catawampous, cattywampus, catiwampus, etc. (see "Dictionary of American Slang" for more), American colloquial. First element perhaps from obsolete cater "to set or move diagonally" (see catty-cornered); second element perhaps related to Scottish wampish "to wriggle, twist, or swerve about." Or perhaps simply the sort of jocular pseudo-classical formation popular in the slang of those times, with the first element suggesting Greek kata-.
Earliest use seems to be in adverbial form, catawampusly (1834), expressing no certain meaning but adding intensity to the action: "utterly, completely; with avidity, fiercely, eagerly." It appears as a noun from 1843, as a name for an imaginary hobgoblin or fright, perhaps from influence of catamount. The adjective is attested from the 1840s as an intensive, but this is only in British lampoons of American speech and might not be authentic. It was used in the U.S. by 1864 in a sense of "askew, awry, wrong" and by 1873 (noted as a peculiarity of North Carolina speech) as "in a diagonal position, on a bias, crooked."
"of or pertaining to elves," 1590s, from elf; first found in Spenser, who also used it as a noun and might have been thinking of elven but the word also is a proper name in the Arthurian romances (Elphin).
mid-15c., "lax, flaccid, soft, tender," from Old French lasche "soft, succulent," from laschier "loosen," from Late Latin laxicare "become shaky," related to Latin laxare "loosen," from laxus "loose" (see lax). Sense of "luxuriant in growth" is first attested c. 1600, in Shakespeare. Applied to colors since 1744. Related: Lushly; lushness.
lush (n.)
"drunkard," 1890, from earlier (1790) slang meaning "liquor" (especially in phrase lush ken "alehouse" ; perhaps a humorous use of lush (adj.) or from Romany or Shelta (tinkers' jargon).
LUSHEY. Drunk. The rolling kiddeys had a spree, and got bloody lushey; the dashing lads went on a party of pleasure, and got very drunk. {"Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence," London, 1811}
Old English behofian "to have need of, have use for," verbal form of the ancient compound word represented by behoof.
Historically, it rimes with move, prove, but being now mainly a literary word, it is generally made to rime with rove, grove, by those who know it only in books. {OED}
1690s, alteration of rascallion (1640s), a fanciful elaboration of rascal (q.v.). It had a parallel in now-extinct rampallion (1590s), from Middle English ramp (n.2) "ill-behaved woman."
"being, existing, or turning up everywhere," 1800, from ubiquity + -ous. The earlier word was ubiquitary (c. 1600), from Modern Latin ubiquitarius, from ubique (see ubiquity). Related: Ubiquitously; ubiquitousness.
late 14c., ethimolegia "facts of the origin and development of a word," from Old French etimologie, ethimologie (14c., Modern French étymologie), from Latin etymologia, from Greek etymologia "analysis of a word to find its true origin," properly "study of the true sense (of a word)," with -logia "study of, a speaking of" (see -logy) + etymon "true sense," neuter of etymos "true, real, actual," related to eteos "true," which perhaps is cognate with Sanskrit satyah, Gothic sunjis, Old English soð "true."
Latinized by Cicero as veriloquium. In classical times, with reference to meanings; later, to histories. Classical etymologists, Christian and pagan, based their explanations on allegory and guesswork, lacking historical records as well as the scientific method to analyze them, and the discipline fell into disrepute that lasted a millennium. Flaubert {"Dictionary of Received Ideas"} wrote that the general view was that etymology was "the easiest thing in the world with the help of Latin and a little ingenuity."
As a modern branch of linguistic science treating of the origin and evolution of words, from 1640s. As "account of the particular history of a word" from mid-15c. Related: Etymological; etymologically.
Belgium
c. 1600, "Low Germany and the Netherlands," from the Latin name of the territory near here occupied by the Belgæ, a Celtic tribe. Adopted 1830 as the name of a new nation formed from the southern part of the former United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Phentex
(16,334 posts)Are we word nerds?
3catwoman3
(23,973 posts)I had an interesting text exchange earlier today with my 26 year old son, who has been a word lover ever since he started talking. We were discussing our reluctance to pronounce "err" and "ideology" properly, because no one else does.
In his current job, he has to do a fair amount of writing, and wanted my opinion on a grammar question. He still needs his mom!
kentauros
(29,414 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,700 posts)I'm guessing that you don't live in a Florida Homeowner's Association. Plenty of opportunities to use it, along with cabal, collusion and conspiracy.
Phentex
(16,334 posts)True I do not live where there is a HOA. But prior to moving here, we lived in a newish neighborhood with a very active one. I wanted to be a good neighbor so I attended meetings and tried to be involved. I was young and had the energy but it drove me crazy. Still, it was good prep for dealing with the PTA once I had school aged kids.
3catwoman3
(23,973 posts)...sesquipedalian?
Phentex
(16,334 posts)tongue twister?
trof
(54,256 posts)slapdashery
ailsagirl
(22,896 posts)The words that are listed aren't generally heard in normal conversation-- I've seen them frequently in news headlines/stories and the like. though
I've heard of "catawampus" but never used it, (nor do I know what it means)-- I think it's an east coast word
Words fascinate me
IcyPeas
(21,859 posts)http://lushbella.blogspot.com/2010/08/diaphanous-drapery.html
another old fashioned word:
pulchritude - which, to me, does not sound at all like what it means (beauty)
and
amanuensis: a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another; secretary.
Charles Dickens used a lot of great words that I think have fallen by the wayside. Like "wayside". what is that anyway? lol
Still Blue in PDX
(1,999 posts)IcyPeas
(21,859 posts)aidbo
(2,328 posts)bluedigger
(17,086 posts)Not a whole lot of flooding around here to call for them, however.
The cat and dog are constantly in cahoots, though.