Empleomania - Word of the Day, Decade or ?

Taken from Susi Dent's Word of the Day -

‘Empleomania’

the desire to hold office or wield power, whatever the cost.

I shall say nothing else about the unfortunate Russians' overlord.

Mullock - Word of the Day

Mullock could be a handy word when commenting on the activities of certain politicians, eg. those blithering mountebanks have made a total mullock of... (insert official title of latest politicians' balls-up)

Mullock - noun originally describing waste from gold mining activities in Australia. If you prefer non-antipodean words, try slag-heap. 

PREVARICATE - word of the day

 Word of the Day, and of the year so far - Prevaricate - to behave indecisively and avoid important decisions, is from the Latin ‘praevaricari’, to ‘plough crookedly or haphazardly’.  

Thank you to Susie Dent for the etymology

Ultracrepidarian - Word of the Day

An Ultracrepidarian is someone who expresses firm opinions on subjects which are quite outside their field of knowledge. 

Now who could I be thinking of?

And yes I had to look it up! No shame in that, the word is now within my field of knowledge.

Rhinoceros - Word of the Day

Today is World Rhino Day. Which has been observed annually on September 22nd since 2010.  
  

The word Rhinoceros comes from Greek, Rhino meaning nose and Keros meaning horn.

We all know what a rhino looks like.  This is an Eastern Black Rhino, living in safety at Port Lympne where they have a breeding program which is contributing to the survival of this endangered species. But all 5 existing species of rhino are endangered, most of them critically. 


All the Rhinoceros on earth are the survivors of populations of many millions, in dozens of species, which once lived all over Europe, Asia, Africa and Northern America. Now there are less than 30,000 rhinos on earth. 
figures from-
www.savetherhino.org/rhino-info/population-figures/

The rhino's problem lies in that nose horn, and the madness of the situation lies in the word Keros - from which we get Keratin. This is the root of the rhino's problem. Keratin from their horns is believed by many people to have almost magical curative properties, particularly for high fever.  

Keratin has no scientifically proven curative properties of any sort, whether from rhino horn, cows' hoof or human fingernails. So once all the Rhinoceros have been exterminated people who hold this belief will at least be able to chew their own fingernails. It will cost them a lot less than rhino horn and will have exactly the same effect.

Psephologist - Word of the Day.

The Greek word psephos means pebble. So maybe I'm a psephologist, I spend time every week on pebbly beaches. But no. The relavent pebbles were used by the world's first democracy as ballots.

So, a Psephologist, in case you don't know (I certainly didn't :D) is someone who specialises in using history and scientific analysis to examine election results. Good luck with making sense of Yesterday's local election!results. Whatever people felt like stuffing into the ballot boxes, it wasn't just pebbles.

Enough pebbles for a landslide...

Word of the Day; Coprolite.

My word of the whole month really. Apply to whichever politician you want, there are plenty of deserving choices.

Its meaning - fossilised turd.

Decimate - Word of the Day

I do get perturbed by certain words, but I get far more perturbed when people use words which they don't seem to know the meaning of. The word 'decimate' doesn't mean to destroy or to devastate, it means to reduce by one in ten. Please tell the TV news journalists - all of them.

Before anyone starts,  let me just say yes, I agree that the English language changes, of course it does. And online dictionaries are starting to say that decimate means to devastate or to destroy. I just want to know what's wrong with the words devastate and destroy? Their meanings are not quite the same so to use one or other of those would be more precise, but decimate has become a favourite word in the news media, where precision is seldom their objective. A punishment for a rebellion in the Roman army was to decimate, literally to kill one in ten of the soldiers.

"A cohort (roughly 480 soldiers) selected for punishment by decimation was divided into groups of ten. Each group drew lots (sortition), and the soldier on whom the lot of the shortest straw fell was executed by his nine comrades, often by stoning, clubbing, or stabbing. The remaining soldiers were often given rations of barley instead of wheat (the latter being the standard soldier's diet) for a few days, and required to bivouac outside the fortified security of the camp.^[3]  As the punishment fell by lot, all soldiers in a group sentenced to decimation were potentially liable for execution, regardless of individual degrees of fault, rank, or distinction."      Wikipedia

Wikipedia, yes I know. But is that any less likely to be correct on this particular issue that any other encyclopedia or dictionary? Every academic/expert writing entries in any of those had a position they wished to take, how does that differ from the enthusiasts who contribute to Wikipedia? I haven't the enthusiasm to delve deep into the original history of the Roman military.

Anyhow I can't read Latin.

Word of the Day, Doldrums

Doldrums - technically an area of the ocean where sailing vessels could become stuck for lack of wind.

More recently - being stuck with nowhere to go and no idea how to get anywhere anyhow.  Remind you of something?

Word of the Day: Hiatus

Word of the Day


HIATUS.

Meaing - pause, break, being up shit creek but still sure you do have a paddle, somewhere.