Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Wednesday Wordplay

You know when somebody uses a word, and you have no earthly idea what it means, but you don't want the person who used the word to know you don't know what it means, so you just nod and smile as if you do know what the word means?

That's what I saw on TV Thursday morning (yeah, deal with it, it's still Wednesday Wordplay because of the alliteration. That and I wrote the title on Wednesday so the dateline would hold) when CNN's John Roberts used the word "peripatetic" and Kieran Chetry smiled and nodded as if she knew what it meant, but the body language said she didn't know what it meant and she was trying as hard as she could to act like she did.

Don't let this happen to you the next time you hear the word "peripatetic"

peripatetic - adj. walking or traveling about; itinerant.

It also means "of or pertaining to aristotle" and came to mean walking around or traveling about because Aristotle used to walk around while he taught philosophy at the Lyceum in ancient Athens. John Roberts used the word to describe Arnold Schwarzenegger, referring to the way the governator crisscrosses California and is difficult to pin down. Good work, Mr. Roberts. Building vocabulary is a salubrious activity.

salubrious - adj. favorable to health or well-being.

Here's some more:

dissimulate - v. to disguise under a feigned appearance; to conceal one's true feelings.

canorous
adj. Richly melodious; pleasant sounding; musical. As in come here the Canorous tones of my younger brother Thursday night at 169 Bar, 169 E Broadway at 7:30pm.

cingular - adj. 1. Of or pertaining to a cingulum, an anatomical band or girdle on an
animal or plant. 2. Encircling, girdling, surrounding. (nothing to do with a cell phone)

Ok, the term "quarterlife crisis" has to go. Stop telling me my quarter life crisis starts Friday. First of all, it assumes I make it to 100, and go no further. If I go for 104, then my quarter life crisis starts next year. If I live 90 years, then tomorrow's my five eighteenths life crisis, and my quarter life crisis came when I was 22 and a half (which is probably when it happened.) Secondly, it's a stupid idea. Crisis - bah! I've got plenty of time left to have a major freak out, who says it has to be now? Freaking out over birthdays is a silly idea anyway, because it's not like you can stop them from happening.

Nolens volens, I hit the quarter century mark on Friday. Whether it's the quarter life mark remains to be seen.

Nolens volens - Whether unwilling or willing.


1 comment:

Eric said...

She walks into a room and you know she's uncommonly rare, very unique, peripatetic, poetic, and chic.

And that's the only reason I know the word "peripatetic"