Category: Word of the Day….Thelmese Fictionary

If  you can have dementia, can you also have emacia? And if you can be emaciated, can you likewise be dementiated?  To be considered emaciated, one would be “bony, gaunt, and most likely undernourished”.  To be dementiated (de, or “without,” and mens, or “mind”), then, would one perhaps have an undernourished mind?  To be a healthy human being (or a healthy any kind of being), nourishment is essential.

(Having a little fun with words…yet they are serious words with serious implications.  We need to nourish the wholeness of our fellow beings.)

Quality control in the Elmo factory: give each Elmo two test tickles.

Cardiogram: Cardio – pertaining to the heart; gram – something written.  Something written pertaining to the heart!! Valentine!!

Valentine [noun] means sweetheart (the object of one’s affections) or a card which is given to the object of one’s affections. A valentine for a valentine, so to speak. Reportedly, the given name Valentine comes from the Latin and means strong or healthy.  And…if Valentine gives a valentine to his valentine, we end up with yesterday’s word — redundancy. And, if we talk about Valentine’s Day, are we referring to a person of that name, the card, or the person to whom the card is given? Or St. Valentine, described by Wikipedia,  who has been associated with a tradition of courtly love, is a patron saint of epilepsy, had ministered to persecuted Christians, and was martyred.  February 14 has been observed as the Feast of Saint Valentine (Saint Valentine’s Day) since 496 AD.  Whether you are a Valentine or a valentine — or send a valentine — Happy Valentine’s Day!!

From a Jeopardy clue — “Redundant phrases that are also repetitive, too.” Need I say more? …

Splutter, according to dictionary.com, is “to talk rapidly and somewhat incoherently”.  This is not yet, but should be, a word in Thelmese — partly because I do it a lot and partly because it is beautifully onomotopoetic which is happily consistent with the Thelmese language.  Spit, splat, sput, sputter, splutter!!!

While today’s word, category, may suggest to some (okay, to me…) the result of a feline kerfuffle, the actual definition is classification which in turn means organization which can mean company which is also a business which can mean occupation which is also defined as conquest which can mean defeat which means beat which has a synonym of thump which can mean assault.  Hence, category can eventually translate to assault…which indeed does sound like the result of a feline kerfuffle.  Hmmmm…….

Crappity — [noun] Thelmese euphemism for c _ _ _; variation of crapola and crippity crap; [adjective] c _ _ _ like; variation of crippity crappity.  Crippity crap is a daintier version, whereas crapola is a more earthy form.

Today’s word, antarctica, has several components: ant (a small social insect), arc (curve), tic (spasmodic muscle contraction or oddity), and a (singular). So…someone named an entire continent after a twisted, lonely bug!! Why would anyone do this??

Pronouns, per Merriam-Webster, are “words in a language that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases”. But it also seems that pronoun might mean supportive of (pro) a noun as opposed to against (con) a noun. Connoun would make a good word of the day…if it were, in fact, a word…or maybe, anyway. Likewise, antinoun could be a reasonable antonym for pronoun. Pronoun also could be interpreted as a professional (pro) noun. With all of these possibilities, it seems rather limiting for a pronoun to have to settle for being a mere substitute or sub (lesser) noun.