Thursday, August 14, 2008

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?

11 comments:

INNER VOICES said...

yeah... and we wouldnt have any other way now would we....


*wonders what a dictionary is and if it could be burned*

INNER VOICES said...

oh yeah and FIRST!!!!!!! MUWHAHAHAHAA...

Anonymous said...

yay, words!

I am surprised that compassion includes "sorrow"--hmmmmm. I wouldn't have defined it that way.

Ed & Jeanne said...

I've injured my tongue trying to say all those words. I'll write more when the cast is removed...

Unknown said...

Ok...you made me do it! Made me bust out my dictionary! Darn you! That was too hard...but some great scrabble words some triple pointers! LMAO!
Hugs,

Anonymous said...

I like words too...only most of them are dirty. ;)

Cece said...

os·ten·ta·tious [os-ten-tey-shuhs, -tuhn-]
–adjective 1. characterized by or given to pretentious or conspicuous show in an attempt to impress others: an ostentatious dresser.
2. (of actions, manner, qualities exhibited, etc.) intended to attract notice: Lady Bountiful's ostentatious charity.

That pretty much describes me.

Leah said...

Try one of my favorite words on for size: schadenfreude.

Nice, no?

Queen Goob said...

IV – no burning of dictionaries….unless it’s that shitlip that came to the shop.

Evil Genius – Take that dictionary and whack someone….maybe at the pool?

Wendy – But don’t you get sad when someone else is sad? Nah, me neither.

VE – mphwrtghlff

Robyn – I have them everywhere, those and thesauruses. (back attcha!)

metalmom – hhmmmm, food for though for next week maybe?

Cece – I’m so glad I wasn’t drinking anything when I read that – it sounds like me, too!

Leah – Yeah, I enjoy that as well. We may have to hook up metalmom even though it’s not a dirty word. NICE ONE! Consider it used!

Anonymous said...

Sarcasm. It's the way I roll.

Magpie said...

persiflage - i love that.