A \lur-nid\ Language

I was perusing some of the blogs I read on a regular basis and finally got around to Let The Dog In! She doesn’t do “Wordless Wednesday” oh, no, no, no, not this classy chick. She does “Learn A Word Wednesday”. I actually love learning new words so I await her new word every Wednesday in order to further my already copious vocabulary with yet another component. My favorite word up until today had been “claque”. (I want my claque to consist of a group of hard bodies with six-pack abs, thank you very much.)

Yesterday’s word for the day was “persiflage”. It’s like chocolate melting on your tongue. Say it with me; “persiflage”. I copied this directly from her blog but I’m sure she won’t mind. (If she does we’ll battle it out later.)

\PUR-suh-flahzh\ noun:

Frivolous or bantering talk; a frivolous manner of treating any subject, whether serious or otherwise; light raillery.

Persiflage comes from French, from persifler, “to banter,” from per-, “thoroughly” (from Latin) + siffler, “to hiss, to whistle,” ultimately from Latin sibilare, “to hiss (at), to whistle.”

She had a short yet entertaining post about hissing in blogs then posed the question of whether or not we were hissers ourselves. Moi? A hisser? Not me, I tend to be more of a sarcastic kinda gal. So in my infamous style I wiki’d “sarcasm” to see from whence this delectable word hailed.

I was shocked. I had no idea. No really, it’s worse than I thought and not even mildly funny.

\SAHR-kaz-uh m\ noun:
A harsh or bitter derision or irony; a sharply ironical taunt; a sneering or cutting remark.

“Sarcasm” appeared in English in 1579, from Late Latin "sarcasmos," in turn from Hellenistic or Medieval Greek "sarkasmos," and ancient Greek σαρκάζω (sarkazo, meaning 'to tear flesh').

To tear flesh.

Okay, it’s more than mildly funny but I thought I’d try my hand at “compassion” just this once.

\kuh m-PASH-uh n\ noun:
a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

Well I guess that was as good as me telling a baby not to fart, not gonna happen. This confirms what we already know; sarcasm is my language of choice, thank you very much.

Anyone need a Band-Aid?