“Sinecure” comes from the Latin phrase beneficium sine cura which is an archaic designation for a person holding a title within a church, and paid under that title, but without any actual duties. In some governments, sinecures are intentionally filled as patronage or to allow a designate to hold multiple offices while only fulfilling the [...]
Words I Love
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Category Archives: The Reasons
Raw
“Raw” is the rawest word I know. “Raw” is intense. For a word with no hard sounds, it still sounds hardcore. Its origins are no less astonishing, with connections to Latin, Greek, Proto-Germanic, Proto-Indo-European, Old Norse, Old Irish, Sanskrit, and Slavic. The need to describe bloody, exposed and uncooked flesh goes back to the dawn [...]
Assassination
This one is easy. I love “assassination” because it has two asses. I learned this from a kid named Amir in the sixth grade, and I cannot write this word without remembering that wonderful moment when I realized I was writing “ass” on my spelling test. An interesting fact about this word, it actually comes [...]
Tintinnabulation
Tintinnabulation is the ringing our sounding of bells. There is, of course, no reason you would ever actually say “tintinnabulation” when it takes three times as long as just saying “ringing”. Why this word is still around is a mystery, but it has a simple and direct etymology from Latin, so it may simply be [...]
Shit-Ton
A shit-ton is an extremely large quantity of something. It has not yet been added to any respectable dictionary that I can find, but is not an uncommon expression to see. My guess is that this word is a conflation of “ton” and “shitload”, and doesn’t appear to have been around for very long. It [...]
Sophistry
This is a word that I love, but never get to use. There is simply never a good time for it. Random House defines it as a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning. The American Heritage Dictionary calls it Plausible but fallacious argumentation. We encounter sophistry every day — from the [...]
Pandemonium
Pandemonium is not chaos. Chaos might be understood, even accepted, but pandemonium will not let you rest, and leaves you confused and shellshocked. Pandemonium is chaos with a greater element of danger and fear. It is a total lack of order, decorum, and ethics. While chaos can describe the seemingly random actions of a set [...]
Eleemosynary
There is a lot to love about this word. How many words can boast three E’s in the first four letters? (Okay, epee is one, but that word is lame). It has two Y’s, and we all love Y because it’s the underdog of the vowels; everybody wants to see more Y (it sleeps with [...]
Sex
For most people, this is not a hard word to love. Everybody loves sex, except for nuns, virgins, Mormons, and guys with very very small penises and the women who pretend to love them. But I love the word itself, not just its meaning. I love it because you take this complicated act, this act [...]
Onion
This is an easy one. I love the word “onion” because the O looks like an onion. Actually, there are two onions in the word onion. Not only is this the greatest word to describe this vegetable, it’s also the best word for it in the WORLD. Spanish: cebolla German: zwiebel Swahili: kitunguu Chinese: yang [...]
