Category: Word of the Day….Thelmese Fictionary

Antidisestablishmentarianism is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as “opposition to the belief that there should not be an official relationship between a country’s government and its national Church”. Interestingly, it seems to include double double negatives, or maybe just one double negative. At any rate, the word essentially seems to mean an objection to the separation of church and state, which would, then, be in support of nonsecular government such as in traditional Islamic law or in the historic Church of England.
Antidisestablishmentarianism was once considered to be the longest word found in the dictionary; however, according to Wikipedia, “The longest word found in a major dictionary is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, but this is a technical term that was coined specifically to be the longest word. Sep 15 2019”.
So…today we have learned two things: the definition of the word AND that is no longer the longest word. As for the new longest word…that is for another day!

Twirl — to spin; rhymes with whirl and swirl (also to spin); also rhymes with furl and curl (to roll up) and burl (a rounded growth on a tree). So…it seems there is pattern here with words containing an “irl” sound. Can we take it further? Pearl? Well, it’s round. Earl? Maybe round if he eats a lot. Not sure about girl…unless she’s dining with the earl. Hurl? Maybe throwing…in an arc? Churl — a peasant (okay, so we’re losing the connection here); terlet (Archie Bunker’s pronunciation for toilet…and it would, of course, swirl when flushed). And a squirrel might run in circles. Well, enough speculating on “irl” sounds. I have to get up earl-y.

Retired — re (again) tired (weary). We spend all those years working. And get tired. Then we finally stop working. And get retired…from getting up, getting dressed (all of which seem to take longer); from climbing stairs (whose idea was it to have the only bathroom on the second floor, anyway?); from transporting and playing with grandkids (but we love ’em); from our hobbies (some of us garden, cook, ride motorcycles, rescue pets); from going out with friends (playing cards, playing trivia, indulging in good meals, going to the theatre, attending sporting events, going to expos). Whew!! No wonder!!
Alternate definition of retired — what you had to do after driving over a nail.

Hyperbole — pronounced high-purr-bow-lee. Hyper (exaggeration, overstatement, magnification, amplification, puffery, above, beyond, super) plus bole (the trunk of a tree.) Hmmmm…..so, an exxagerated tree trunk???? That makes no sense unless one is talking about a giant sequoia. So maybe, rather than hyper-bole, it should be hyper bowl (pronounced high-purr-bow-l).  Hyper (super) plus bowl (stadium for a sporting event).   Super Bowl. Aha!! That’s more like it!!….

“Time” — the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole. “Warp” — buckle, twist, bend, distort. So…time warp is a distortion of the progress of existence? Sounds good!

Representative of that definition is the “Time Warp” song and dance from “The Rocky Horror Show”.

Let’s do the time-warp again
Let’s do the time-warp again
It’s just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
With your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
Let’s do the time-warp again
Let’s do the time-warp again

As I gets older and time warps, I find, in attempting to do The Time Warp, that I have become dyslexic (or maybe that’s dysmorphic…or certainly dys-directional, disorganized, and disoriented) both between left and right AND between up and down. (Sigh….) But we had a great time! (And there will be a story at some point in the near future about the first time I ever went to The Rocky Horror Picture Show many years ago…to be included in an embarrassing moments segment of the Motorcycles, Monkeys, Mischief, and My Life category.)

[from the Thelmese dictionary] Snorgle (not to be confused with “snorkel”) is a unique phenomenon which occurs when a snore combines with a gurgle to produce a particularly disruptive sound capable of keeping bedmates awake for hours due to its inconsistency of volume and cadence. Along similar lines, a snork is a sort of abbreviated snore which occurs just as the would-be snorer’s head drops to his/her chest, most often when the drowser is in sitting position. Whereas snoring is generally an ongoing smooth, even sound, both snorgling and snorking are characterized by erratic and startling noises. Snotsicle is included with the other two words simply due to its alliterative similarity (the three words all beginning with “sno”) as well as its connection to noses. Snotsicle refers a phenomenon which occurs when a careless nose-blower goes out into freezing temperatures and forms a structure akin to a stalactite in a nostril. And…when the spouse of someone (who shall remain nameless) points out the formation of a snotsicle on his/her mate, one can safely bet that snorgling will be brought to the attention of the public even if the snotsicler is also a snorker!! Just sayin’…

Centipede — centi (100) pede (feet).  One hundred feet.  One hundred little feet. One   hundred   little   fast   feet.   I’m sure that another potential word of the day is centipediphobia – with which I am afflicted.  Although, admittedly, if one hundred feet involve, say, fifty marathon runners, I could live with that.  Or fifty ladies getting pedicures at the spa.  However, the word’s actual definition is “a predatory myriapod invertebrate with a flattened elongated body composed of many segments. Most segments bear a single pair of legs”, and that is not okay.

Living on the third floor of a brick apartment building as a child, I found that insects and arachnids seldom made it up to our apartment.  But on several occasions during my growing up there, a stray centipede would make an appearance zooming around the bathtub wall just as I would be getting into the tub.  Yieeeeeeee!!!  The stuff of childhood trauma!!!

As an adult, my fear still lurks!!  I am told that centipedes are friendly critters because they eat other insects and spiders.  I have struck a bargain with spiders in my home.  They must abide by certain rules:  don’t overpopulate; don’t grow beyond a certain size; eat your quota in bugs; and don’t invade my personal space (which means my field of vision).  So, if centipedes want to be helpful household critters, those same rules would apply.  And I would add the stipulation that they would not be allowed to outrun me (with the note that I am technically much more concerned with my ability to outrun them since it is highly unlikely that I’d every actually intentionally run toward one).  I had a friend who recently asked me if centipedes are good swimmers.  My response was that I am not sure, but I do know they are not good drowners as they do not go peacefully or gracefully.

Now that I have spent waaaaayyy too much time thinking about “centipedes”, I will probably have difficulty going to “sleep” (yesterday’s Word of the Day, which involves a lot of responsibility, anyway).  But I’ll try…..

According to Wikipedia, “sleep is a naturally recurring state of mind and body, characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and inhibition of nearly all voluntary muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and reduced interactions with surroundings”.

Whew! What a lot of responsibility involved in sleeping! Especially when we should be using that time to rest up!

More from Wikipedia — “It is distinguished from wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, but more reactive than a coma or disorders of consciousness, with sleep displaying very different and active brain patterns”

So…we have all that to do, plus our ability to do it is decreased!! That’s a lot to think about. Pretty tiring. I guess I’d better catch up on my sleep — but it seems like a lot of work!

Initially, I was going to procrastinate in posting a Word of the Day with the plan of doing it tomorrow. But I found this in Wikipedia: “Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished by a certain deadline. It could be further stated as a habitual or intentional delay of starting or finishing a task despite knowing it might have negative consequences. It is a common human experience involving delay in everyday chores or even putting off salient tasks such as attending an appointment, submitting a job report or academic assignment, or broaching a stressful issue with a partner. Although typically perceived as a negative trait due to its hindering effect on one’s productivity often associated with depression, low self-esteem, guilt and inadequacy; it can also be considered a wise response to certain demands that could present risky or negative outcomes or require waiting for new information to arrive.” So…now I am feeling the weight of the implications of “avoidance”, “negative consequences”, “depression”, and “low self-esteem”. Wow!! Taking this information into consideration, I have decided to post the above. Tomorrow’s word may need to be “guilt”. But, since I honorably credited Wikepedia for their disheartening definition, at least it won’t have to be “plagiarism”. Whew!! Now I can sleep with a clear conscience (or perhaps a tad of guilt). Either way….sleep beckons.

Spire — a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on top of a building, such as a church tower. We tend to see a spire as something spiritual, majestic. What about “spire” as a root word? Part of aspire, inspire, respire — also spiritual and majestic. To aspire, we are reaching upward, seeking that which is beyond our grasp. To inspire, we are lifting others upward, moving them to break boundaries into unknown possibilities. To respire is to breathe, to absorb the essence of life.

What is the spire we see when we look up? What is it that urges us to reach for the pinnacle? Each of us has goals that are individual, specific, meaningful to us. We have the power to choose the direction. Spiral upward!!